Cyber Crimefighters:Feds Fighting Cyber Crime
Date: December 30, 2004Source: Mich News Com
By:
[The writer represented the National Association of Chiefs of Police on a Government Accounting Office advisory panel which reviewed the FBI reorganization plan.]
When the Federal Bureau of Investigation implemented the second phase of their reorganization plan in 2003, phase two emphasized the need for allocating special agents to combating cyber crime. According to a Government Accounting Office study, this reallocation involved reassigning away from drug enforcement duties and into counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cyber crime.
Part of the FBI's counterintelligence strategy stresses the ability to gather complaints and reports and create a clearinghouse for local law enforcement officials assigned to white-collar crime investigation and cyber-crime investigation. In an effort to more accurately reflect the wide-ranging nature of online complaints being reported, the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) recently announced that the Internet Fraud Complaint Center will now be called the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or “IC3.” The IC3, which began in May 2000, is a partnership between the FBI and the NW3C to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding areas of cyber crimes.
The IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism for alerting authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. Within the FBI, the IC3 is a component of the Cyber Division. The name change will not alter the course of business in that the IC3 will continue to emphasize serving the broader law enforcement community and all the key components of the 50 FBI-led Cyber Crime Task Forces throughout the country.
FBI PRIORITIES
According to the FBI, among the top priorities at the IC3 is to establish effective alliances with private industry which will enable us to leverage both intelligence and subject matter expertise. This approach is pivotal in identifying and crafting a proactive response to cyber crime. Through already strong but growing partnerships with NW3C, private sector and foreign and domestic law enforcement, we have built a solid foundation to address today’s cyber criminals no matter where they are or how complex their schemes may be.
State and local law enforcement participation is a cornerstone to the success of IC3. IC3 will continue to receive, database, and refer complaints to law enforcement agencies having jurisdiction.
Since its inception, the IC3 has received complaints across a wide array of cyber crime matters including on-line frauds in its many forms. Examples of complaints received involve identity theft, international money laundering, computer intrusions, on-line extortion, credit and debit card scams, intellectual property theft and a growing number of on-line schemes. Last year, the IC3 received and processed more than 120,000 complaints, many of which pass through multiple jurisdictions and overlap with other crimes, making cooperation on all fronts a necessity.
Once a complaint is filed with IC3, further analysis is conducted to identify and quantify crime patterns and provide statistics on current trends. The complaint is then expeditiously packaged and sent to appropriate law enforcement agencies for further investigative action. “Operation E-Con” and more recently “Operation Cyber Sweep” represent successful investigative initiatives supported by IC3. In those initiatives, more than 200 such investigations were productively packaged, resulting in arrests and/or charges of more than 250 individuals for engaging in a variety of cyber crimes.
The IC3, located in Fairmont, West Virginia, is comprised of agents, analysts, and IT specialists from the FBI as well as supervisors, analysts and IT specialists from the NW3C. Because of the unprecedented increase in identity theft and other cyber crimes, including terrorists’ use of the internet in achieving their goals, the FBI places cyber crime fighting on its list of priorities which includes counterterrorism and counterintelligence.
COMPUTER SECURITY
Protecting the computer systems that support our critical operations and infrastructures has never been more important because of the concern about attacks from individuals and groups with malicious intent, including terrorism. These concerns are well founded for a number of reasons, including the dramatic increases in reported computer security incidents, the ease of obtaining and using hacking tools, the steady advance in the sophistication and effectiveness of attack technology, and the dire warnings of new and more destructive attacks.
As with other large organizations, federal agencies rely extensively on computerized systems and electronic data to support their missions. Accordingly, the security of these systems and data is essential to avoiding disruptions in critical operations, as well as to helping prevent data tampering, fraud, and inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information. Protecting the computer systems that support our nation's critical operations and infrastructures has never been more important.
Telecommunications, power distribution, water supply, public health services, national defense (including the military's war-fighting capability), law enforcement, government services, and emergency services all depend on the security of their computer operations. Yet with this dependency comes an increasing concern about attacks from individuals and groups with malicious intent, such as crime, terrorism, foreign intelligence gathering, and acts of war. Such concerns are well founded for a number of reasons, including the dramatic increases in reported computer security incidents, the ease of obtaining and using hacking tools, the steady advance in the sophistication and effectiveness of attack technology, and the dire warnings of new and more destructive attacks.
Dramatic increases in computer interconnectivity, especially in the use of the Internet, continue to revolutionize the way our government, our nation, and much of the world communicate and conduct business. The benefits have been enormous. Vast amounts of information are now literally at our fingertips, facilitating research on virtually every topic imaginable; financial and other business transactions can be executed almost instantaneously, often 24 hours a day; and electronic mail, Internet Web sites, and computer bulletin boards allow us to communicate quickly and easily with a virtually unlimited number of individuals and groups.
In addition to such benefits, however, this widespread interconnectivity poses significant risks to the government's and our nation's computer systems and, more important, to the critical operations and infrastructures they support. For example, telecommunications, power distribution, water supply, public health services, and national defense (including the military's war-fighting capability), law enforcement, government services, and emergency services all depend on the security of their computer operations. The speed and accessibility that create the enormous benefits of the computer age likewise, if not properly controlled, allow individuals and organizations to inexpensively eavesdrop on or interfere with these operations from remote locations for mischievous or malicious purposes, including fraud or sabotage. Government officials are increasingly concerned about attacks from individuals and groups with malicious intent, such as crime, terrorism, foreign intelligence gathering, and acts of war.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, terrorists, transnational criminals, and intelligence services are quickly becoming aware of and using information exploitation tools such as computer viruses, Trojan horses, worms, logic bombs, and eavesdropping sniffers that can destroy, intercept, degrade the integrity of, or deny access to data. In addition, the disgruntled organization insider is a significant threat, since such individuals often have knowledge that allows them to gain unrestricted access and inflict damage or steal assets without possessing a great deal of knowledge about computer intrusions.
As greater amounts of money are transferred through computer systems, as more sensitive economic and commercial information is exchanged electronically, and as the nation's defense and intelligence communities increasingly rely on commercially available information technology, the likelihood increases that information attacks will threaten vital national interests
Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Government Accounting Office and National Association of Chiefs of Police.
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores.
Add comment
Email to a Friend
