EDS, Other IT Leaders Lend Technical Expertise To Internet Crimes Commission
Cyber crime has become an overwhelming problem for law enforcement as more perpetrators hide their identities behind firewalls
and encryption. Officers are often more adept at physically chasing criminals than following digital trails.
But, some U.S. police departments are effectively going digital as they catch online criminals. An example: the Internet Crimes Task
Force in Wayne County, Mich. -- one of about 21 such task forces in the United States. The commission has arrested 41 people for
Internet-related crimes since 1998. Yet the problem with Internet-related crime, porn and hacking was still overwhelming law
enforcement officials in Wayne County.
Wayne County Sheriff Robert Ficano faced an uphill battle in fighting Internet crime. His department helped get the criminal
evidence to court, but sometimes the cases were lost on technicalities -- because the data was not properly formatted. They needed
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help to compile a digital trail and present it in court for successful prosecution.
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So, Ficano recently turned to the private sector for its intellectual capital and -- with EDS and 14 other
companies formed the Internet Crimes Commission. The commission is the first of its kind in the United
States.
"The effort is being led by Sheriff Ficano, who's gone out to the business community instead of waiting for legislation to pass," said
Eddie Bugg, EDS client executive for the Midwest region. "Government and the private sector must work together in a partnership
unlike any we have seen before if we are to successfully fight cyber crime."
Network administrators, information security experts and fraud examiners from the 15 companies donate their time to help the
sheriff's five investigators. The companies include Xerox, Novell, General Dynamics, Computer Sciences Corp., Comcast and
Ameritech.
In a recent speech to the Economic Club of Detroit, EDS Chairman and CEO Dick Brown lauded the work done by Sheriff Ficano.
"From felony conspiracy to economic fraud to information security and intellectual property, the sheriff's Internet Crimes Task Force
has made 41 cyber crime arrests -- more cyber crime arrests than all the law enforcement and police departments in the Midwest
combined," Brown said. "Cooperative efforts like this between industry and government are crucial if we are to weed out the cyber-
offenders. Business leaders fail to get involved at their own peril."
Bugg said the commission is a way for law enforcement to work with business to create an environment where the Internet is safe
to use for all transactions, without fear of hacking, theft or fraud. The commission's first task was to help the sheriff's department
build the right infrastructure. The companies are donating about $500,000 in staff time, technical assistance and equipment,
including cable networks and workstations, Government Technology magazine reported in its March issue.
"What's key for us is the forensic value that these companies bring to us," Ficano told Government Technology. "Their expertise
helps us show that a transmission came from a particular computer. It gets into the evidentiary situations involving the arrest and
the conviction. These companies are very good (at) being able to establish (where a transmission comes from) scientifically."
The commission helps investigators understand the technology and how online transactions are conducted, whether it's bank fraud,
hacking or theft of someone's identity.
"They need to prosecute the people they're catching," Bugg said. "In order to do that, they produce the necessary evidence required
by law. This means they need copies of all chat conversations, or bank transactions or transactions used for hacking a system,
depending on the crime.
"They have to have the evidence in certain formats to win in court, and we're working with the police on that," he said.
The commission also visits schools to talk to parents about online pornography.
"We tell them that you don't how easy it is for a kid to get this," he said. "We ask them, 'Do you know what your kids are doing on
the Internet?' Parents have to understand and know what their kids are doing on the computer."
Involvement in the commission helps business as much as it helps the sheriff's department, Bugg said.
"It develops great relationships for us and shows how we are leading the fight against cyber crime," he said. "It has such an impact
on our business, because if people become fearful of the Internet, it reduces the potential they could use it for. … Privacy and trust
go together."
For your front line of defense in EDS' Cyber Security Institute can help For more information, e-mail
information security, turn to EDS you reduce your vulnerability to cyber info@eds.com or complete our
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