U.S. Wants More Cybercrime Laws

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37809,00.html

Reuters
3:30 p.m. Jul. 26, 2000 PDT

WASHINGTON -- More than 100 countries do not have the laws to deal
with computer-related crime, undercutting efforts to battle a growing
international threat, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.

"Currently, at least 60 percent of INTERPOL membership lacks the
appropriate legislation to deal with Internet/computer-related crime,"
Edgar Adamson of the U.S. Customs Service told a House of
Representatives panel.

Adamson heads the U.S. National Central Bureau, which coordinates U.S.
ties to INTERPOL, the global police alliance facilitating cooperation
among 178 member nations.

In testimony prepared for the Subcommittee on Government Management,
Information and Technology, Adamson said the border-hopping nature of
cyber crime showed the need for international law-enforcement
cooperation "has never been greater."

At issue is garden-variety crime facilitated by new technology such as
child pornography, pedophilia, identity theft, and credit-card fraud
as well as viruses and other malicious code like the "denial of
service" attacks that blocked access to major commercial websites in
February.

Michael Vatis of the FBI, who acts as the top cyber cop in the United
States, told the panel that the lack of "substantive laws that
specifically criminalize computer crimes" in many countries undercuts
investigations.

"This means that those countries often lack the authority not only to
investigate or prosecute computer crimes that occur within their
borders, but also to assist us when evidence might be located in those
countries," he said.

As examples of cases involving international cooperation, Vatis cited
"hacker" attacks that have led to prosecutions in Israel, Canada,
Britain, and the Philippines.

He said the joint U.S.-Philippine hunt for the suspected perpetrator
of the ILOVEYOU virus, which crippled many e-mail systems worldwide in
early May, had been hampered by the lack of a specific computer crime
statute.

"We are currently working on numerous cases that require international
cooperation," added Vatis, who heads the inter-agency National
Infrastructure Protection Centre. The center deploys 193 agents
nationwide to investigate computer intrusion, "denial of service' and
virus cases.

Senior police from Israel, Sweden, Germany, the Philippines, and
Latvia each testified that computer-related crime was a mounting
danger requiring stepped-up law-enforcement coordination.

"There is a need to set up special communication channels which should
be open 24 hours a day to process urgent and critical cases," Juergen
Maurer, detective chief superintendent of the German Federal Police
Office, said.

Richard Schaeffer, head of the Pentagon office of Infrastructure and
Information Assurance, told the panel that more than 22,000 cyber
"attacks" on U.S. Defense Department systems were reported to a joint
task force for network defense last year.

"We must develop the technology, capabilities, processes and legal
framework to respond to cyber events in near real time," he said, not
the hours or days it currently takes.

"There will come a time when our capabilities will be tested and
national security or the economic security of the nation will depend
on components ... working collaboratively," he said.


*-------------------------------------------------*
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Intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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