Jim Christy is a retired Special Agent that has specialized in cyber crime investigations and digital forensics for over 32 years with the Air Force Office of Special Investigation, the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) and now the private sector. Jim left the government in July 2013 after 42 years of public service and has started his own consulting firm, The Christy Group, LLC.

Jim retired in Nov 2006 as a Special Agent and immediately returned to the federal government as a senior appointed by the Secretary of the Air Force. He retired from federal service in 2013.

In the Fall of 2016, Jim was asked to join and lead the D.B. Cooper Cold Case Team's cyber investigative effort to identify the real identity of D.B. Cooper. The D.B. Cooper case is the only unsolved US airline hijacking which occurred in November 1971. The initial Cold Case Team's efforts were aired in a History Channel 4-hour documentary in July 2016 which identified the D.B. Cooper suspect. Jim put together a cyber investigative and digital forensics team and investigated the true identity of D.B. Cooper. The Cold Case Team held a press conference on 9 Feb 2018 in front of the FBI HQ in Washington DC announcing our results and the real DB Cooper identity.

Jim consulted with David Marconi (writer of the movies Enemy of the State, Mission Impossible 2 & Live Free or Die Hard) and contributed technical advice on critical infrastructure attacks (Fire Sale) used in the movie Live Free or Die Hard with Bruce Willis. Jim was also featured in 2013 in the Smithsonian Channel's documentary on the movie; The Real Story: Live Free or Die Hard.

In May 2011, the Air Force graduated the first NCO's for a new AF career field, Cyber Defense Operations, at Keesler AFB, MS. The staff of the course honored Jim by creating and presenting the top graduate of the class with the "Jim Christy Award". Jim was also selected to make the first presentation of the award and be the keynote speaker for the inaugural course.

In 2010, to fill a National void of qualified digital forensic examiners, Jim created the National Center for Digital Forensics Academic Excellence (CDFAE) Program, a partnership between DC3 and academia. CDFAE fosters the digital forensic field and encourages growth in a specific STEM field supporting the National Initiative Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Framework Domains. CDFAE develops a partnership between academia and the government to establish standards and best practices for digital forensics practitioners, educators, and researchers to advance the discipline of Digital Forensics and increase the number of qualified professionals to meet the needs of law enforcement, counterintelligence, national defense and legal communities as well as critical infrastructure owners and operators.

He was profiled in Wired Magazine in January 2007; CSI: TCP/IP

In 2006, Christy created the DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge an international competition that in 2013 had 1,800 participants spanning 49 states and 53 countries. The exercises were designed to develop, hone, and engage participants in the fields of cyber investigation, digital forensics, and cyber security. It is one of the first venues to employ crowd sourcing in "real world" mission focused solution development. The Digital Forensics Consortium is reincarnating this Challenge as the US Digital Forensics Challenge to excite students and faculties about the cyber security discipline of Digital Forensics.

In Oct 2003, the Association of Information Technology Professionals awarded Jim the 2003 Distinguished Information Science Award winner for his outstanding contribution through distinguished services in the field of information management. The award was originally called the "Computer Man of the Year" award. The first winner was Admiral Grace Hopper. Other previous recipients of this prestigious award include Gene Amdahl, H. Ross Perot, General Emmett Paige, Bill Gates,