[ISN] Cyber-Cops Outgunned

From: InfoSec News (isn@private)
Date: Wed Jun 02 2004 - 01:44:17 PDT

  • Next message: InfoSec News: "[ISN] Linksys routers may be open to remote sniffing"

    http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1604316,00.asp
    
    By Dennis Fisher 
    May 31, 2004    
     
    Bob Breeden isn't complaining, don't get him wrong. Special Agent
    Breeden, who heads the Computer Crime Division of the Florida
    Department of Law Enforcement, in Tallahassee, feels fortunate to work
    in one of the few state police departments running a full-time
    cyber-crime division. With four other officers under his command and
    another 10 FDLE employees at his disposal, Breeden oversees a division
    with an embarrassment of riches compared with its counter parts in
    most other states.
    
    Still, "there are days I feel like I need 10 more agents and more
    money," Breeden said. Considering Florida has the second-highest
    number of Internet-fraud incidents in the country each year and that
    Breeden's team handles between 400 and 500 cyber-crime cases annually,
    it's easy to see how resources can be stretched to the limit.
     
    Breeden knows that most jurisdictions have it far worse. "The vast
    majority of local law enforcement hasn't embraced technical
    investigations," he said.
    
    Since the 1980s, when computer crimes first became a concern for law
    enforcement, agencies have wrestled with how to deal with the
    often-confusing, highly technical realm of the cyber-criminal. Early
    efforts to centralize enforcement within federal agencies were seen as
    convenient and mostly logical but ultimately have led to
    jurisdictional squabbles and turf wars.
    
    "It is, in a word, chaotic," said Mark Rasch, a former U.S. Attorney
    who specialized in prosecuting computer crimes and is now the chief
    security counsel at Solutionary Inc., in Omaha, Neb. "There's
    supposedly a memorandum of understanding between the Secret Service
    and the FBI about who takes what, but it's usually whoever gets the
    first referral. [Today] you can have agents from the FBI, the Secret
    Service, and state and local police all working on the same case."
    
    Meanwhile, as cyber-crime skyrockets, law enforcement at all levels is
    at once struggling to get a handle on the threat and trying to impress
    those holding the purse strings in government that it is an area in
    need of attention and funding. In fact, the federal monopoly on
    cyber-crime cases for nearly two decades had the effect of leaving
    state and local law enforcement departments with no resources to
    investigate such crimes on their own and gave state legislatures
    little incentive to approve funding for specialized training or task
    forces to tackle the problem.
    
    As a result, during the Internet boom of the mid-to-late 1990s, most
    police departments were woefully unprepared for the resulting spike in
    online crime, experts say. Investigators accustomed to traditional
    cases with witnesses, clear evidence trails and time-tested techniques
    for tracking down suspects suddenly found themselves thrown into
    cyberspace, where chaos and anonymity reign. Compounding the problem:  
    Most had little experience with computers and the Internet.
    
    "I didn't have any real technical knowledge when I started doing
    this," said Breeden, who has been investigating computer crimes for
    nearly six years. "You learn as you go."
    
    Meanwhile, as cyber-crime skyrockets, law enforcement at all levels is
    at once struggling to get a handle on the threat and trying to impress
    those holding the purse strings in government that it is an area in
    need of attention and funding. In fact, the federal monopoly on
    cyber-crime cases for nearly two decades had the effect of leaving
    state and local law enforcement departments with no resources to
    investigate such crimes on their own and gave state legislatures
    little incentive to approve funding for specialized training or task
    forces to tackle the problem.
    
    As a result, during the Internet boom of the mid-to-late 1990s, most
    police departments were woefully unprepared for the resulting spike in
    online crime, experts say. Investigators accustomed to traditional
    cases with witnesses, clear evidence trails and time-tested techniques
    for tracking down suspects suddenly found themselves thrown into
    cyberspace, where chaos and anonymity reign. Compounding the problem:  
    Most had little experience with computers and the Internet.
    
    "I didn't have any real technical knowledge when I started doing
    this," said Breeden, who has been investigating computer crimes for
    nearly six years. "You learn as you go."
    
    [...]
    
    
    
    _________________________________________
    ISN mailing list
    Sponsored by: OSVDB.org
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Jun 02 2004 - 03:40:18 PDT