Police outgunned by cybercriminals

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti880.htm

By Greg Farrell
USA TODAY
12/06/00

At a time when law enforcement agencies are winning the war against
violent crime, they seem to be losing the war against cybercrime. The
problem: Law enforcement groups from the FBI down to local police
forces are lagging in the training and ability to combat this new form
of criminal activity. And the bad guys know it. ''Willie Sutton said
that he robbed banks because that's where the money was,'' says
Richard Hunter of Gartner, which recently conducted a study of
cybercrime. ''Today's Internet criminals don't have to rob banks. With
currently available technology, they can just as easily rob tens of
thousands of individuals, with less chance of being caught.''

According to Gartner, only $10 million of the federal government's
estimated law enforcement budget of $17 billion is allocated to
computer-crime-related training, staffing and support.

''The amount of money being spent is low,'' Hunter says. ''And it's
not increasing at the same rate that cybercrime is increasing.
Identity theft alone is increasing by more than 40% per year.''

Most frustrating, Hunter says, is that there's not even enough money
being spent to help law enforcement determine where to concentrate its
efforts.

That situation could change.

While Congress is back in session this week to reach a budget accord
with President Clinton, prospects look good for approval of a program
of $25 million in grants to state and local law enforcement to deter,
investigate and prosecute computer crimes.

''There's a strong likelihood this will pass,'' says Mike Paranzino,
special assistant to U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz. Salmon and Sen.
Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., are sponsoring similar versions of this bill in
each chamber. If a final version is approved, Clinton is expected to
sign it into law.

Meanwhile, given the lack of funds dedicated to computer crime, law
enforcement groups are trying to provide as much help as possible to
one another.

The National White Collar Crime Center just finished producing two
computer-based training courses, available on CD-ROM, to instruct
state and local law enforcement personnel in the use of the Internet
as an investigative tool. They are also designed to help local
officials understand the nature of computer-related crime and its
toll.

Gartner's Hunter thinks more money and effort, however, will be
required. On a recent visit to Boston, police arrested two men
involved in a fight that spilled onto the hood of Hunter's car. When
one of the police officers asked Hunter to send him some information
pertaining to the incident, Hunter offered to e-mail it to him.

''The officer told me, 'We don't have e-mail,' '' Hunter says. ''In
fact, the vast majority of police officers probably don't have
e-mail.''

Because of the lack of research into this new realm of crime, Hunter
and other Internet security specialists caution individuals and
companies that for the time being, they will have to shoulder most of
the responsibility for their safety.

''One of the most pernicious aspects of this is that one could be
victimized and not find out for months,'' Hunter says. ''Individuals
and small enterprises have to take responsibility, because there's not
going to be a lot of after-the-fact law enforcement.''



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