mercinary
April 22nd, 2005, 11:18 AM
Courtesy: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7594210/
Statewide initiative set to fight cyber crime
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
The Union Leader
N.H. - CONCORD - Most cyber criminals in New Hampshire are not sleazy peddlers of child pornography.Rather, they are electronic pickpockets and thugs who use the Internet to rob, defraud, impersonate and even harass regular people, according to a survey of police departments statewide.
The survey results released yesterday are "powerful evidence" of the need to train local police in computer crime investigation, said Andrew E. Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire's Survey Center, which helped conduct the survey.
"These are regular crimes. They are happening locally, and they are happening to local victims," Smith told about 100 law enforcement officers attending an update on the state's cyber crime-fighting initiative yesterday.
The initiative is a collaborative effort among federal, state and local law enforcement and academia. After 1½ years of strategic planning and assessing available resources in the state, their efforts now are producing results.
They include a first-in-the-nation statewide forensic network that will enable local police to investigate cyber crime cases online by the end of the year, said Col. Frederick H. Booth, director of New Hampshire State Police.
"We're getting the message out to those who commit computer crime that New Hampshire does have a sophisticated network and method of investigating computer crime, whether that be child pornography or identity theft or whatever," Booth said.
The state Department of Safety is in the process of upgrading its secure wide-area computer network so hard drives of computers seized by local police can be forensically saved on it, he said.
Local police then will be able to access the data through secure online portals.
"It allows the investigator . . . to interrogate the forensically saved computer information without jeopardizing the integrity of the original information," Booth explained.
"Today there is no easy way to interrogate that data without piecing your way through it. The software we will be acquiring . . . will just immensely enhance the capacity to do these investigations in an expedited manner," he added.
Booth said safety officials know of no other agency in the country involved in a similar program.
"It's going to provide better investigations, more timely investigations. It's going to enhance the training and investigative capability of police officers that are engaged in these types of investigations," he explained.
A prototype of the system has been developed and will be demonstrated this summer, Booth said. Federal grants funded the $180,000 in computer hardware and software needed to upgrade the state police's computer system, he said.
This is just one aspect of the multi-pronged attack on cyber crime under way in New Hampshire, according to Booth and Attorney General Kelly Ayotte.
Training local police and developing statewide protocols for seizing, investigating and prosecuting computer crime are others.
The cyber crime initiative, which is part of the state's Strategic Plan to Address Cyber Crime, also will offer a three-day basic training in computer crime investigation to about 90 police officers statewide at no cost to their departments this summer, said Ayotte.
"The training element at the local level is critical because those local officers on the scene are seizing the computers and they have to know what to do with them," Ayotte said.
Currently, "pockets of expertise" exist in various departments and agencies, but no one agency addresses the problem alone, which is why the collaborative initiative is critical, she said.
Training local police is a key element in ensuring the state can sustain its cyber-crime fighting capacity, officials said.
"It means you folks in the communities, in the towns, have that capability," said Andrew Macpherson, assistant research professor at University of New Hampshire's Justiceworks program.
Justiceworks conducted an online survey of law enforcement agencies statewide last year to learn what types of cyber crime they encounter, the resources they have to fight it and how many of their officers are trained in Internet investigations.
Of the approximate 242 law enforcement agencies in the state, 101 responded to the survey, Macpherson said. They represent about two-thirds of the state's population.
The survey showed nearly all complaints police investigate come from local victims and 5,000 cases of cyber crime were reported in 2004.
Theft comprised the largest number of complaints, followed by theft by deception, identity theft and fraud, Macpherson said. Surprisingly, child pornography ranked fifth, followed by criminal threatening and harassment, he said.
While 89 percent of the departments surveyed had at least one person who investigated computer crime, just 62 officers are trained in these techniques, Macpherson said.
-Merc
Statewide initiative set to fight cyber crime
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
The Union Leader
N.H. - CONCORD - Most cyber criminals in New Hampshire are not sleazy peddlers of child pornography.Rather, they are electronic pickpockets and thugs who use the Internet to rob, defraud, impersonate and even harass regular people, according to a survey of police departments statewide.
The survey results released yesterday are "powerful evidence" of the need to train local police in computer crime investigation, said Andrew E. Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire's Survey Center, which helped conduct the survey.
"These are regular crimes. They are happening locally, and they are happening to local victims," Smith told about 100 law enforcement officers attending an update on the state's cyber crime-fighting initiative yesterday.
The initiative is a collaborative effort among federal, state and local law enforcement and academia. After 1½ years of strategic planning and assessing available resources in the state, their efforts now are producing results.
They include a first-in-the-nation statewide forensic network that will enable local police to investigate cyber crime cases online by the end of the year, said Col. Frederick H. Booth, director of New Hampshire State Police.
"We're getting the message out to those who commit computer crime that New Hampshire does have a sophisticated network and method of investigating computer crime, whether that be child pornography or identity theft or whatever," Booth said.
The state Department of Safety is in the process of upgrading its secure wide-area computer network so hard drives of computers seized by local police can be forensically saved on it, he said.
Local police then will be able to access the data through secure online portals.
"It allows the investigator . . . to interrogate the forensically saved computer information without jeopardizing the integrity of the original information," Booth explained.
"Today there is no easy way to interrogate that data without piecing your way through it. The software we will be acquiring . . . will just immensely enhance the capacity to do these investigations in an expedited manner," he added.
Booth said safety officials know of no other agency in the country involved in a similar program.
"It's going to provide better investigations, more timely investigations. It's going to enhance the training and investigative capability of police officers that are engaged in these types of investigations," he explained.
A prototype of the system has been developed and will be demonstrated this summer, Booth said. Federal grants funded the $180,000 in computer hardware and software needed to upgrade the state police's computer system, he said.
This is just one aspect of the multi-pronged attack on cyber crime under way in New Hampshire, according to Booth and Attorney General Kelly Ayotte.
Training local police and developing statewide protocols for seizing, investigating and prosecuting computer crime are others.
The cyber crime initiative, which is part of the state's Strategic Plan to Address Cyber Crime, also will offer a three-day basic training in computer crime investigation to about 90 police officers statewide at no cost to their departments this summer, said Ayotte.
"The training element at the local level is critical because those local officers on the scene are seizing the computers and they have to know what to do with them," Ayotte said.
Currently, "pockets of expertise" exist in various departments and agencies, but no one agency addresses the problem alone, which is why the collaborative initiative is critical, she said.
Training local police is a key element in ensuring the state can sustain its cyber-crime fighting capacity, officials said.
"It means you folks in the communities, in the towns, have that capability," said Andrew Macpherson, assistant research professor at University of New Hampshire's Justiceworks program.
Justiceworks conducted an online survey of law enforcement agencies statewide last year to learn what types of cyber crime they encounter, the resources they have to fight it and how many of their officers are trained in Internet investigations.
Of the approximate 242 law enforcement agencies in the state, 101 responded to the survey, Macpherson said. They represent about two-thirds of the state's population.
The survey showed nearly all complaints police investigate come from local victims and 5,000 cases of cyber crime were reported in 2004.
Theft comprised the largest number of complaints, followed by theft by deception, identity theft and fraud, Macpherson said. Surprisingly, child pornography ranked fifth, followed by criminal threatening and harassment, he said.
While 89 percent of the departments surveyed had at least one person who investigated computer crime, just 62 officers are trained in these techniques, Macpherson said.
-Merc