The Cyber-Mod Squad Sets Out After Crackers

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO45927,00.html

BY Deborah Radcliff
(Jun. 19, 2000) NEW YORK

March 19. Internet Trading Technologies Inc. (ITTI) takes the first of
a series of crippling denial-of-service shots to its online trading
systems. Just as technologists block the offending incoming IP
address, the company gets slammed again from another IP address.

New York-based ITTI's information security consultant places a call to
Bob Weaver, operations manager of the New York-area Electronic Crimes
Task Force (ECTF), a 240-strong cyber-Mod Squad that's trained for
operations like these. The next morning, Weaver's team of three sets
up a war room at ITTI's data centers. They analyze and trace the
offending IP traffic while calling telephone companies for traces on
the lines and simultaneously faxing subpoenas.

"Have you ever seen a movie with a kidnap scene - agents sitting
around monitoring equipment and phones? It's that type of setting you
now have in the corporate sector," says Ed Stroz, founding president
of New York-based security consulting firm Stroz and Associates. Stroz
called the ECTF on behalf of ITTI.

Four hours later, they nab their man. Abdelkader Smires, formerly
ITTI's chief programmer, is still at the keyboard when they catch him
at a New York college where he taught night classes. Now Smires, who
pleaded guilty to charges of computer fraud and misuse in the Eastern
District Court of New York, awaits sentencing.

Just another example of the private/ public partnership for which the
ECTF is becoming known.

The 5-year-old ECTF focuses primarily on the New York area, but its
network is expanding to include the Washington area. The ECTF, a sort
of central cybercrime clearinghouse for all arms of local, state and
national law enforcement, is headed by the New York office of the U.S.
Secret Service and boasts a membership of 180 top federal and local
law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.

[...]


*-------------------------------------------------*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
Intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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