[ISN] Cyber-Cops Outgunned

[InfoSec News]

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."

[...]