IP: policing cyberspace -- CYBERCOP

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Hearing Before the Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Technology and
Subcommittee on Basic Research of the House of Representatives on:
"Cyberporn: Protecting our Children from the Back Alleys of the
Internet"


Written Statement of Kevin Manson, Webmaster, @CYBERCOP.ORG


Wednesday, July 26, 1995


My name is Kevin Manson, I am a SysOp of a CyberLaw Enforcement BBS and
Webmaster for the private, non-profit, virtual organization called
"@CYBERCOP.ORG". This is also the domain name I have registered on the
Internet.


The URL for @CYBERCOP.ORG is:http://well.com:80/user/kfarrand/index.htm


@CYBERCOP.ORG is an Internet site that networks law enforcement
professionals, the on-line business community and other non-profit
organizations to provide a communications vehicle for "community relations"
for law enforcement on the electronic frontier.


I believe that a new collaboration between law enforcement and private
sector businesses and organizations which meld technological savvy and a
commitment to information security, privacy and civil liberties, will help
define the state of the art in cyber law enforcement.


The market place will respond to the needs of parents concerned with
adult content on the Net. Ann Duvall's SurfWatch, which I have referenced
on the @CYBERCOP.ORG home page, is just one example.


I will submit a text and HTML copy of the @CYBERCOP.ORG home page to the
Committee on disk and would ask that it be included in the record.


I am also the founder and SysOp for the computer BBS (Bulletin Board
System) called CYBERCOP, which is a private BBS dedicated to networking
and education for law enforcement.


Two and a half years ago, I personally developed the first computer BBS
(Bulletin Board System) at the Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center (FLETC) which is a Bureau of the Treasury Department where I serve
as a Senior Instructor in the Legal Division. The system was initially
created in December of 1992 using my own personal computer hardware,
software and dedicated data line.


In February of 1993 my BBS became the focus of a project I completed in
the highly regarded Professional Development Training Program at the FLETC
Management Institute(FMI). That project created the "FLETC FMI Infonet" BBS
which was the FLETC's first BBS and served as the prototype for a FLETC BBS
which was subsequently created by the FLETC Information Systems Division.


I continue to operate the BBS I created under a new name, CYBERCOP, as a
non-governmental not-for-profit system whose mission is "Networking and
education on the electronic frontier". the CYBERCOP BBS allows me to
extend my reach as an instructor and permits me to network with my
professional peers in law enforcement around the nation and across the
globe. Several panel members testifying today are CYBERCOP users.


I have traveled to today's hearing with my family, at my own expense, and
on my own time. I would like to emphasize that my statement, comments or
responses to questions today represent my personal views only, and not
those of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center or the Treasury
Department.


My testimony is offered from the perspective of a BBS SysOp and
Internet Webmaster who has a strong personal interest in legal, law
enforcement, and social issues associated with law and order on the
electronic frontier. I also appear as the father of  12 year-old daughter
who will grow up to be a "Net Citizen" in the Global Village, and the
husband of a para-professional at St. Simons Island Elementary School in
Georgia, who is studying the benefits and problems associated with on-line
access for staff and students.


I am also involved with a group of interested community members in the
Golden Isles of Georgia, where I live, to develop a community  "Freenet" to
provide free access to the Internet based on the National Telecomputing
Network model. The issue of protecting our children from the back alleys of
the Internet is critical for such an initiative. I am a frequent Compuserve
and Internet user and am a member of the Internet Society and The Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF).


Author and journalist Bruce Sterling, who serves as liaison between the
Austin (Texas) Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and law enforcement,
has commented that cybercops are like "shy woodland creatures," noting that
finding them on the Net is a bit difficult. Not surprisingly, the I'Way
Patrol does not always want its presence publicized on the Net with "marked
cars".


However, the lack of a public cybercop presence in the on-line world, I
believe, has contributed to public misunderstanding of the role, mission
and attitudes of law enforcement who patrol the On-line world. If law
enforcement remains aloof of the public it is sworn to serve and protect it
will further exacerbate the widespread cynicism that many already feel
about government power and authority. Cybercops must have the support and
confidence of the virtual communities they patrol every bit as much as the
cop on the street. The cybercop's "beat" is relatively unfamiliar
territory to the average American over the age of 18. The unfamiliar
becomes threatening to the uninitiated. Cybercops, and those assisting
them, must teach families and online communities how to protect themselves
with "Cyber-neighborhood Watches".


Unfortunately, cybercops seldom venture outside private or a few select
public venues that are oriented toward hi-tech crime. The civil liberties
community, on the other hand, has been quite successful in its outreach
efforts. To that end I created a "virtual organization" on the Net
called () CYBERCOP ORG, where cutting edge law enforcement issues of this new
frontier, such as protecting children in cyberspace, are discussed and
presented.


Recently, I was invited by Bruce Sterling to participate as a guest
"speaker" in a private, on-line "virtual seminar" on the WELL sponsored by
the Global Business Network (GBN).  Bruce was moderator of one of the
Conference topics which dealt with the future of law enforcement on the
edge of technology.  The GBN is a group of high-powered visionary futurists
who were featured in a recent WIRED magazine article.


GBN  has taken a leadership position in the concept of "scenario planing",
which contemplates planning for the future rather than being overtaken by
it. Law enforcement is rapidly finding itself being overwhelmed by a
breakneck pace of technology that traditional organizational paradigms
simply cannot manage. Only those organizations willing to make a dramatic
break with a regimented bureaucratic structure will survive in the Information
Age.


Bill Tafoya, who recently retired from the FBI, is a prime example of the
kind of non-linear innovator that government must cultivate and empower.
Bill was a driving force behind placing the FBI on the virtual street of
the Internet to enlist the support of the Net community in the UNABOMB
investigation. Bill now heads a think tank group serving police futurist.


The Internet and other computer mediated communications constructs will do
no less than revolutionize the concept of "community". It is hard to
envision any serious or effective attempts to legislate regarding this new
communications realm without grasping its unique interactive nature which makes
it neither distinctly a publisher, common carrier nor broadcaster, yet having
attributes of each of these communications media.


If listserv, IRC, talk, CUSeeMe, newsgroups, Web sites and browsers, FTP,
Telnet, search engines and intelligence agents are not part of one's
vocabulary, the tendency is to treat the Internet as a monolithic,
mono-cultural entity, which would be a mistake.


Those who have not explored the magnificent cultural, scientific,
educational and recreational resources on the Internet and on-line services
(including the large commercial services and BBS's), are often tempted to
"demonize" the Internet by portraying it as being "permeated with pornography",
which it is not.


Perhaps the most responsible reportage covering the Internet in the major
news weeklies has been US News and World Report's skillful and balanced
stories written by Vic Sussman. His January 23, 1995 cover story on
"policing cyberspace" and recent article on demonizing the Internet deserve
a careful read by those who are developing this nation's policy on our
national telecommunications infrastructure. The insight and perspectives
of those articles transcend the narrow sensationalistic reporting we have
seen in recent weeks from other quarters.


On-line services, BBS's and the Internet enable individuals and
small groups to communicate, collaborate and cooperate with unparalleled
ease. A single person or small team of dedicated individuals can command
the same presence on the Net as a multibillion dollar corporation or
massive government agency.


In the on-line world, the concept of a web of global collaboration has
replaced the strictures of a chain of command. One's status in the world of
collaboration is based on sharing information, not hoarding it. "Virtual
organizations" cross departmental lines or international borders with equal
ease.


Tom Peters in his best seller "Thriving on Chaos" commented that:
"Information hoarding, especially by politically motivated, power-seeking
staffs, has been commonplace throughout American industry, service and
manufacturing alike. It will be an impossible millstone around the neck of
tomorrow's organizations. Sharing is a must." Law enforcement is no
different. When law enforcement officers and agents gather the topic of
information sharing is a common one. Law enforcement must not let a lack
of sharing between agencies and between management and line staff deflect
them from their sworn duties.


Computer mediated communications can free an organization of "meeting
paralysis" and empower line staff and management with tools such as video
conferencing, document conferencing, and on-line seminars. Thanks to
communications pioneers such as Ted Nelson, Tim Berners-Lee and Mark
Andreesen, even the computer novice can now navigate complex systems such
as the Internet with relative ease. Virtual Organizations consisting of
small teams of creative pioneers can be created in a matter of hours.


Small hybrid teams will form the attack vessels that will be needed in the
war on cyber (and other) crime. The old order of battle was to amass a
fleet of powerful, but  slow moving, unresponsive battleships in a fleet
configuration. We can no longer rely on a lock-step order-of-battle to wage
War on the pornographer, transnational criminal organizations, or money
launderers.


We must learn how to be quick, decisive and empower small groups of Net
savvy cybercops who can reinvent the state of the art for law enforcement
in cyberspace.


Training cybercops how to patrol the Information Superhighway is a
critical task for law enforcement. Unfortunately, cybercops are often
saddled with woefully outdated hardware and software and many are paying
for Internet or other on-line access out of their own pockets. On of the
greatest tributes to the CYBERCOP BBS is that many of its users are using
their family's budgets to pay for long distance calls to reach it.


Most innovations in the training of Cybercops are being implemented by
visionary organizations such as the Financial Fraud Institute at the FLETC,
which has been training law enforcement agents about the Internet in
programs such as the Telecommunications Fraud Program and the Computer
Investigations in an Automated Environment Training Program.


To a great extent, this battle is not unlike the task of fighting
other kinds of crime. It will yield to innovative and creative
investigative and prosecutorial efforts. The successful application of
those efforts will by necessity require very technical and intensive
training to put and keep cybercops on the cutting edge of technology.


As a former congressional staffer I must confess that one of the several
things I missed the most after leaving Washington was access to the
magnificent library we called our "office library", the Library of
Congress. It was a watershed day when Speaker Gingrich announced that
private citizens would be able to enjoy even greater access to the Library
of Congress than I ever had while working on the Hill.


The dark side of on-line communications must not prevent our teachers,
parents, business partners, family members and  public servants from
reaching out to students, customers, family members and friends in the
world of cyberspace.


I am convinced that democracy itself, and the institutions at its core,
will be redefined by the personal and institutional relationships that will
be forged in this new world. One of the greatest challenges of our age will
be to forge this technology as a tool for the advancement of civilized
values. We cannot simply cower in its shadow.


I remain an optimist about the colonization of cyberspace.


I am heartened that the Subcommittee has provided this venerated venue
to discuss an issue which is on the minds of millions of parents and
teachers as they weight the opportunities and risks presented by the
on-line world and look to Congress for guidance.


I believe that the solution to many of the problems associated with
computer mediated communications will be found in a new partnership forged
between the on-line community, business, the civil liberties community and law
enforcement. To that end I have dedicated my Web site @Cybercop.org.


I would like to publicly thank my wife, Steph, daughter Heather, and
Mother, for their unflagging support for their "on-line" father, husband
and son who has spent many hours on the Net communicating with students,
peers and friends. I also dedicate my efforts to my father who taught me
that looking at the world from an unconventional perspective can light the
road to personal fulfillment. My thanks also go out to those members of my
extended "on-line family" who have encouraged and supported the CYBERCOP.


Kevin Manson
kfarrand () well com
70521.2003 () compuserve com




























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