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Police struggle to catch high-tech criminals
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Copyright ) 1997 Nando.net
Copyright ) 1997 Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON (December 6, 1997 9:06 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -
Prosecutors and police around the globe are stumbling over geographical
barriers in their quest to nab Internet criminals who cross
international boundaries with ease.
Seeking to develop an international strategy to put these cyberspace
rogues behind bars, justice and interior ministers from the Group of
Eight (G8) nations meet in Washington Dec. 9-10.
"The fight against lawlessness on the Internet will be one of the
greatest law enforcement challenge of the next century," U.S. Attorney
General Janet Reno said.
The Internet allows a savvy criminal armed with a humble personal
computer to swipe military or industrial secrets buried in the databanks
of laboratories or companies.
It also allows drug traffickers with encryption technology to swap
information about drug shipments and launder vast sums of money.
And from the shelter of a country with tolerant laws, Internet users can
transmit pornographic images, publish extremist propaganda and
disseminate information about bomb-making.
"National laws reflect national customs and national interests," said
Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties
Union.
Last year German authorities ordered the nation's Internet-access
companies to bar access to a site based in Holland featuring Radikal, an
extreme-left magazine banned in Germany.
The site, which is legal in the Netherlands, countered that censorship
bid by permanently changing its address.
Another challenge facing the ministers in Washington will be their speed
of response.
"Once a government is involved, judicial process and formal
international requests for assistance can delay the investigative
process, sometimes with detrimental results," a top U.S. Justice
Department official said.
In 1992, cyberspace pirates operating out of Switzerland invaded the
computer network of a San Diego, Calif., research center doing work on
nuclear weapons.
After months of delays caused by differences in the laws of the two
nations, police in Zurich used the postal service and official channels
to offer its assistance to U.S. authorities. By then, the pirates had
stopped their work and their trail had gone ice-cold.
"Technology is moving much too quickly," said David Post, director of
the Cyberspace Law Institute at Georgetown University in Washington.
"The only effective agreements will be where there is broad
international acceptance," Steinhardt said.
A U.S. official said the United States hopes that the ministers of
Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan -- known as the Group of
Seven major industrialized nations -- and Russia will leave the
conference ready to "empower experts to find solutions."
By ISABEL PARENTHOEN, Agence France-Presse
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