Investigations and Digital Forensics - Term Paper Example

 Investigations and Digital Forensics Introduction The spectrum of intelligence with the world of law enforcement has changed rather dramatically following the events of September 11, 2001. Since 2001, local, tribunal and state law enforcement agencies have new varied responsibilities; intelligence being one of the most fundamental. Moreover, the discipline of intelligence continues to evolve with every passing day. Following the emergence of these trends, increasing figures of Americans law enforcement agencies are exploring and embracing new intelligence functions. This paper aims at helping intelligence agencies through this process of finding and implementing intelligence functions. The paper focuses on local and national law enforcement agencies commencing their career in law enforcement. All law enforcement agencies in the US, despite their sizes and areas of jurisdiction, must have the ability to appreciate the consequences of information collection and analysis, as well as intelligence sharing to deter digital or cyber crime and terrorism. Various groups continue to provide crucial leadership with regard to deterring cyber crime and terrorism, thereby, offering new law enforcement agencies ample opportunities to learn from these groups’ initiatives and experiences. These groups include Global Intelligence Working Group (GIWG); High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA); the International Association of Intelligence Analysts (IALEIA); Bureau of Justice Assistance; FBI and Counterdrug Intelligence Executive Secretariat (CDX) (Balkin, 2006). With every passing day, local and national law enforcement agencies encounter new expectations, as well as responsibilities with regard to the development of an intelligence capacity as a core element of the cohesive national mission to protect Americans from terrorism and digital crime. In this breath, particularly pursuant to the events of 9/11, law enforcement agencies have undertaken unprecedented initiatives to reengineer their intelligence function. Local and national law enforcement agencies focus their policies on an intelligence-led policing philosophy aimed at complementing community policy, which all American law enforcement agencies use. Relevance of the Topic While the advent of technology brought immense, positive effects on the modern world, technology has also resulted in adverse events such as cybercrime and cyber terrorism. Cybercrime refers to all criminal activities, which specifically target computers or networks used for infiltration or damage. In cybercrime, computers are the main tools of criminal activities. The principal difference between cybercrime and other forms of malicious acts lies in the virtual realm of the perpetrator’s motivation. Computers substantially amplify criminals’ power, as well as reach with regard to committing crimes. Techniques used in cybercrime continue to change with innovations in technology. This vastly enhances the effects and reach of criminal activities since criminals do not require being in physical proximity with their victims in order to commit crimes. Cyber terrorism, on the other hand, involves the acts of terrorism groups that launch cyber attacks to cause harm to an individual or country (Demers, 2001). Since it is often quite difficult to determine the occurrence of a cybercrime or cyber terrorism act because most cyber crimes occur anonymously, law enforcement agencies need to institute new ways of curtailing such criminal activities. Moreover, it is relatively complex for law enforcement agencies to ascertain whether or not a cyber attack transpired from an act of terrorism. This realization reaffirms the need for the establishment of an integrated intelligence system by law enforcement agencies. Cybercrime is a threat to local, national and global economic and security interests. Experts posit that the estimate of the direct economic effect of cybercrimes is at least billions of dollars per annum. Cyber terrorism is a continually emerging threat as terror groups become increasingly computer savvy enabling their use of cyber attacks to harm US infrastructure. Because of the increased prevalence of publicly available tools used for hacking, many terror groups have the capacity to launch denial-of-service, as well as other forms of attacks against Internet-based systems. The Internet enhances the quantity of attacking options available to terror groups. Evolution of Cybercrime, Terrorism and Intelligence Law enforcement agencies continue to face immense controversy with regard to their intelligence, particularly because of past events where law agencies kept records of citizens’ activities considered as anti-Americans or suspicious despite the fact that no crimes took place. This means that intelligence used by law enforcement agencies in earlier years was quite dismal, particularly in terms of performance and capacity to identify cyber criminals and terrorism. This contravenes the fundamental constitutional assurances and damages the American philosophy of fairness with regard to government intrusion of Americans’ personal lives. However, the limit is not succinct with regard to the scope of information law enforcement agencies can gather and keep. Certain guidelines adopted by both local and national law enforcement agencies appear to be contrary to the legal application of the law (Balkin, 2006). Furthermore, other than the legal ramifications, early intelligence initiatives adopted by law enforcement agencies essentially lacked focus, viable processes and purposes. These historical experiences provide crucial lesson to modern law enforcement agencies thereby providing both guidance and context for new law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, aggravating all the aforementioned factors of traditional intelligence is a tenuous relationship between national security intelligence and law enforcement intelligence. National security intelligence continues to experience substantial changes since the mid 20th century. These changes are both legally and politically controversial in response to shifting socio-political events witnessed in the annals of the US. One of the controversies and perhaps the most recent are law enforcement agencies’ post-9/11 anti-terrorism efforts. In the early 20th century, law enforcement intelligence used the dossier system borrowed from the military. This form of intelligence entailed the use of dossiers with diverse raw data on people believed to be criminals (Demers, 2001). After the Second World War, American law enforcement agencies focused their intelligence on preventing the perceived threat posed by the domination of the Soviet Union. However, in the 1970s, there emerged substantive indications that American law enforcement agencies used intelligence in violation of the civil rights of American citizens. These accusations implicated national law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and CIA (Charlesworth, 2003). In spite of the dismal success of intelligence, many local and national law enforcement agencies considered the intelligence function as one of the most crucial to all law enforcement agencies. Consequently, new critical evaluations of the intelligence functions led to enhanced recommendations to improve the operation of the intelligence function. One of the fundamental inadequacies of local and national intelligence units were their lack of capacity to progress well beyond data collection to a systematic method of data analysis (McQuade, 2006). Another notable limitation of traditional law enforcement intelligence lays in the fact that most law enforcement executives either did not appreciate the value of intelligence or did not have sufficient skills to use intelligence products in an effective manner. Moreover, intelligence personnel did not have sufficient analytic skills, crucial in the production of meaningful intelligence products. However, the advent of the Internet in the late 20th century substantially enhanced information sharing and curtailed most of the aforementioned limitations encountered by law enforcement agencies. Most recently, public hearings and staff reports from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the US i.e. the 9/11 Commission, continue to discuss the aspect of information sharing as a function of intelligence. One of the most critical issues of concern was the effectiveness of information sharing amongst national and local law enforcement agencies. The 9/11 Commission notes there is a profound need for national and local agencies to share intelligence to counter cyber crimes and acts of terrorism. Cause theories Cybercrime and terrorism cause varied injurious effects on both an individual and a country. Cybercrime is essentially offenses committed against groups or individuals with the sole purpose of intentionally harming the victims or their reputations. This harm takes the form of mental and physical injury, done either indirectly or directly using contemporary telecommunications networks, for instance, the Internet (through emails or notice boards) or mobile phones (through MMS or SMS). Cybercrime activities include a broad array of injurious activities, such as the unauthorized alteration of computer inputs by entering false data or unauthorized processes or instructions (Charlesworth, 2003). Cybercrime activities also encompass the alteration of stored information in a manner that harms the owner or user of such information. Cyber terrorism, on the other hand, defines acts of terrorism, which terrorists commit by using computer resources and the cyberspace. Cyber terrorism uses propaganda and activities through the Internet thereby causing immense fear amongst the victims. Terrorism encompasses among others hacking activities aimed at individuals, organized groups and countries that cause fear, exemplify power and collect data aimed at ruining the lives of innocent people. Acts of terrorism such as detonating device-operated bombs, suicide bombing and killing innocent people not only causes fear but deters community unity as people begin to suspect one another. Terrorism, as well as cyber crime, dehumanizes people by exemplifying them as targets of crime rather than people who deserve humane actions such as compassion, appreciation and admiration. Strategies for reducing or eliminating cyber crime and terrorism Cybercrime and terrorism are likely to continue existing many years to come and must, therefore, be countered. However, local and national law enforcement agencies must establish processes that not only guarantee the growth of the Internet both inclusively and openly, while maintaining the principles on which the Internet was created. One of the fundamental issues lies in the vagueness of the terms cybercrime and terrorism. Local and national law enforcement agencies need to participate in a global conversation, which will ensure the demythologization of cybercrime, as well as the definition of what constitutes a cybercrime and terrorism. Local and national law enforcement agencies also need to combine their intelligence to realize a viable way of dealing with cybercriminals and terrorists (Hinduja, 2003). It is pertinent that all law enforcement agencies in the US decouple cyber terrorism from cybercrime by defining cyber terrorism in specific and realistic terms that speak to the modern world. Such definition should encompass the definition of the probable threats brought by cyber terrorists, as well as the definition of to what length local and national law enforcers should go to deal with such events. Law enforcement agencies will be better equipped to gather or receive and understand related policies and news after defining the two terms to deter ambiguity, and will subsequently to able to engage in meaningful discourse regarding the subject of cybercrime and terrorism. Local and national law enforcement agencies should also appreciate the role of the media (for instance, online news outlets, television and blogs) in terms of educating the public, as well as engaging in conversations. Law enforcement agencies on both a local and national level can act as curators of information and mediators of discourse regarding the issues of cybercrime and terrorism. In essence, law enforcement agencies should follow a sensible and concise approach that is devoid of shock practices and fear mongering. Since cybercrime and terrorism is an international issue, law enforcement and policy networks and governments across the globe should work cooperatively to discuss the issues openly (Balkin, 2006). Furthermore, law enforcement agencies should also work cooperatively with academics and scholars who are capable of providing valuable expertise on ethical, psychological and technological issues regarding cybercrime and terrorism. References Balkin, J., Grimmelmann, J., Katz, E., Kozlovski, N., Wagman, S. & Zarsky, T. (2006) (eds). Cybercrime: Digital cops in a networked environment. New York: New York University Press. Charlesworth, W. R. (2003). Profiling terrorists: A taxonomy of evolutionary, developmental and situational causes of a terrorist act. Defense & Security Analysis, 19 (3), 241-264. Demers, M. E. (2001). Prioritizing internet security. Electronic News (North America), 47 (4), 46. Hinduja, S. (2003). Trends and patterns among online software pirates. Ethics and Information Technology, 5, 49-61. McQuade, S. (2006) Understanding and managing cybercrime. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Read More