The Cyber Threats in Saint Louis County - Case Study Example

Cyber Warfare Executive Summary The assignment provides a brief analysis of the cyber threats that have been persisting in the St. Louis County, Missouri. In addition, the essential requirements for establishing an effective cybercrime task force along with the legislations required for increasing the capacity of local law enforcement bodies to investigate cybercrimes have been identified. As per the findings, cases of cybercrime including ‘child pornography’, ‘credit card scam’ and ‘identity theft’ in St. Louis County are continuously rising which have threatened national security along with children lives across the US. Thus, St. Louis County due to this rising concerns focuses on establishing a task force unity which is capable for investigating cybercrimes effectively. Hence, it is recommended that cybercrime task force must increase its cooperation with the law enforcing bodies In order to effectively combat and eliminate risks of cybercrime. 2. Introduction 21st century has been an era in which most of the criminals depend on progressive technologies and Internet to undertake their criminal activities. It has been revealed that internet technology has emerged as the primary medium for criminals to plot organized crime. In the present day context, crimes are mostly driven by technology which includes ‘identity theft’, ‘intellectual property theft’ and ‘payment card scam’ among others. According to the ‘Federal Bureau of Investigation’ (FBI), United States (US) has been the hub for high-tech criminalities which has eventually increased the concerns for law enforcing bodies to develop certain tools or equipment that would efficiently combat contemporary period crime along with protecting the fundamental rights of US citizens. As witnessed cybercrimes have increased to such an extent that the level of organized crime has significantly augmented which has become a huge threat for national security. In addition, cyber criminals have developed new criminal practices and extended their criminal network across the globe which has pressurized the US federal government to create new cyber policies for maintaining cyber security. In this context, the paper intends to develop a cyber-crime task force plan for St. Louis County in Missouri. Additionally, the equipment and technology required for the cyber-crime task force to mitigate the risk of cybercrimes in the county will be determined. Furthermore, a brief account will be provided about legislative measures to be developed in the county for increasing the capability of local law enforcement agencies to curb cyber-crimes. 3. Cyber-crime Threats in St. Louis County It has been witnessed that the cybercrime cases in the St. Louis County has reached to a greater level over the last few decades. According to Teressa Gilbreth, there are numerous cybercrime threats that St. Louis County is currently facing which includes ‘credit card scam’, ‘child pornography’, and ‘identity theft’ among others that have jeopardized the personal and security of people living in the county. It will be worth mentioning that national security and economic health of the US has become vulnerable due to large scale organized cybercrime (Gilbreth, 2012). It is likely that in future St. Louis County will face cybercrime threats such as ‘Sale of Firearms’, ‘Invasion of Privacy’, and ‘Espionage’ among others (Winmill et al., 2010). As per the statistics provided by the ‘Multi-Jurisdictional Cyber Crime Task Force’, there are 47 law enforcement bodies in the state Missouri which are allied with Cyber Crime Task Forces to combat cybercrimes and reduce the level of these criminal activities. In the year 2011, 947 individuals were arrested in the state against the charges of cybercrime in which most of them were from the St. Louis County. Additionally, 2,686 cybercrime cases in the state were subjected to forensic lab test and 2,873 arrest warrants were issued in the same year (Missouri Department of Public Safety, 2011). Therefore, the top three priorities for the Cyber Crime Task Force in this context will be deterring ‘child pornography’, ‘credit card scam’ and ‘identity theft’. Nevertheless, the issue of child pornography in the recent years has soared significantly. Most the children in the county are identified to be vulnerable to sexual abuse as this type of crime has given rise to markets for child pornography. Thus, the utmost priority will be given towards curbing child pornography. Besides, child pornography, in turn has deteriorated the reputation of St. Louis County across various regions of the US. In addition, credit card scam has been given top priority as it has jeopardized the financial health of people residing in the county thereby deteriorating the economic health of the nation as a whole. Identity theft will also be given certain priority as most of the cybercriminals use the personal details of people living in the county for wrongful reasons. 4. Cyber Crime Task Force Structure Cyber Crime is a worldwide issue which is considered as a contemporary kind of criminal activity that has rapidly expanded its operations and networks. . he In order to effectively combat cyber-crime, it is essential for the Cyber Crime Task Force of St. Louis County to develop highly efficient organizational structure. Correspondingly, the task force will utilize an organizational structure that has a cybercrime unit with the ability of carrying out undercover and forensic activities to detect cybercrime and combat it effectually. The organization structure will involve a public prosecutor, group of technical and forensic specialists along with competent investigators through which each and every paradigms of a detected cybercrime will be examined and accordingly appropriate actions will be taken. To be precise, the cybercrime will be structured into three segments which will include investigation team, forensics team and data probe team (National Center for Justice and the Rule of Law, 2007). The personnel and skills required for the task force to investigate the top three cybercrime threats will be an attorney who will head the unit investigators along with technical and forensic specialist (National Center for Justice and the Rule of Law, 2007). More specifically, both investigators and forensic specialists will need to acquire legal as well as technical skills and further they must focus towards integrating their skills so that cybercrime is combatted effectively. In addition, the attorney responsible for governing the task force must possess leadership skills necessary for managing the personnel involved in delivering their services (National Center for Justice and the Rule of Law, 2007). The Cyber Crime Task Force will be developing relationship with various federal bodies present in the county in order to combat cybercrime in an effective manner. In this regard, it is considered that the task force must maintain healthy relationship with the FBI so as to use its advanced surveillance mechanism for easily detecting cybercrimes in the county. Besides, the task force will develop liaison with the Joint National Capital Region (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) through which the unit will be able to use its geospatial intelligence for detecting crimes related to identity theft and child pornography. 5. Cyber Crime Task Force Equipment The police commissioner of St. Louis County will have to procure different types of equipment, technology and items so as to ensure that the Cyber Crime Task Force can combat crime in the particular region effectively. Concerning the equipment the police commissioner will require minimum of 3 high-tech vehicles which will be used for investigation purpose. Other items such as light bars, ballistic vests, speakers, sirens, handcuffs will also have to be acquired. It is considered that these items are necessary for the investigators after a particular crime is detected in order to ensure that the investigators can successfully carry out crime surveillance and arrest the criminals. The commissioner will also require acquiring technologies such as flashlights, cameras, surveillance systems, radios and trauma kits which will play a huge role in detecting and reducing the level of cybercrimes in St. Louis County. Other item for instance, handcuff, safety jackets, gun racks and gloves are the essential requirements for Cyber Crime Task Force to ensure that the number of victims affected by cybercrimes at St. Louis County significantly reduces in the coming future (Missouri Department of Public Safety, 2011). Requirements for developing a cyber-crime lab capable of carrying out cyber forensics will be based upon the nature of forensic investigation that the task force unit will be performing in the lab. However, some of the common equipment required to develop a cyber-crime lab are cabinets, tape drives, hard drives, scanners and imprinters. Cabinets consist of a computer system that helps in executing various forensic activities. Tape drives are required by investigators while performing investigation. Hard drives are required in labs to generate recovery copies of investigation related information. Imprinters and scanners are required to generate investigation reports along with creating documents that have been acquired from criminal evidence or a crime scene. There are certain electrical requirements to develop cyber-crime lab such as ‘Amperage’ which is a must to operate different kinds of electrical equipment in the lab. Internet connection is also an important aspect for connecting a set of forensic computers and transmitting investigative information. Forensic tools for instance, ‘Wireless storage bags’, ‘Write Block Protection Devices’, ‘SIM card readers’, ‘Rapid action imaging devices’, ‘Remote Chargers’ are quite necessary for setting up a cyber-crime lab that can effectively perform cyber forensics. In addition, forensic software such as recovery tools, searching tools and back up utilities requires to be given utmost consideration for undertaking cyber forensic activities (EC-Council, 2009). The hardware and software systems mentioned above are quite important as it helps in discovering cybercrime related evidence which in turn becomes useful in obtaining search warrants from magistrates based upon the evidence gathered. In general, it is considered that these systems, if incorporated appropriately while developing a cyber-crime lab will facilitate in effective detection of cybercrimes in the St. Louis County (Kerr, 2005). 6. Cyber Crime Legislation The level of cybercrime activities in St. Louis County as mentioned above has significantly increased in the recent years. In this regard, legal measure is identified to be important aspect with respect to ‘anti-cybercrime strategy’. Thus, in order to increase the capacity and powers of local law enforcing agencies it is considered that new legislations and provisions must be developed in the region. Proactive laws for instance, proscription of illegal data accesses must be introduced in St. Louis County that will discourage cyber criminals to get indulged in illegal cyber activities. Proscription of illegal data accesses as a legislative provision must empower cybercrime task force and associated local law enforcement bodies. This will enable them to prosecute criminals indulged in unauthorized access of confidential as well as personal data contributing towards the criminal activities like credit card scam. Proscription of illegal data must safeguard the privacy rights of people residing in the county so that instances of identity thefts are lessened to a certain extent (Broadhurst, 2006). Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) must be systematically reviewed by the county officials and accordingly new provisions must be framed. This provision must abandon the restrictive laws binding agencies involved in investigating cyber-crime so that they are able to carry out internet spying and are empowered to spy cybercrimes easily. Provisions for legalizing harsh penalties on trade of child porn must be introduced which will create a sense of fear amid criminals to carry out such crimes. In this regard, St. Louis County will require developing ‘Internet Crime Complaint Center’ so that the newly introduced provisions that is ‘Proscription of illegal data accesses’ and ‘legalization of harsh penalties on child pornography’ encourage cyber victims to freely report crimes and lodge complaints (Wexler, 2014). This will help responsible authorities to understand the nature of cybercrimes in the St. Louis County region and accordingly take actions that would penalize the criminals based upon their crimes. On the whole, it is considered that the new provisions developed at St. Louis County must be inclined towards increasing the cooperation amid task force units and local as well as federal law enforcement agencies so that the process of investigating cybercrime eventually becomes effective (Doyle, 2010). The above-mentioned legislations and provisions for empowering law enforcement capacity must be passed in the US parliament. This is because, once a bill is passed in the US parliament than the newly developed provisions and legislations will be employed in the state, national and local level. This in turn will reduce the level of cybercrimes being committed in the state as well as in nation along with the number of victims (Doyle, 2010). 7. Conclusion From the above analysis and discussion, it is apparent technological advancement in the last few decades has impacted the lives of people in a significant manner. The development of information technology has been driving the world towards becoming more digitalization. The digitalization of the world has lead towards the emergence of new and potential threat of cyber-war. Different types of cyber-crime have been constantly increasing with which the world community is required to deal in present context. In the current day circumstances cyberspace is widely being used as a platform for political, economic, and military conflicts accompanied with hostile interest. In this regard, St. Louis County in the Missouri province of the US has been a region wherein the frequency of cyber-attack has increased to manifold in the recent years and has been practiced routinely. Consequently, significant concerns have been raised by the state and local agencies towards the increasing phenomenon of cyber-attacks. It has been believed that intensity of such attack will further surge in the later years leading towards the emergence of cyber-warfare. Thus, it can be inferred that in order to reduce the level of cybercrimes in the St. Louis County region, building an effective Cyber Crime Task Force is one of the most crucial aspect. However, there are certain factors to be considered while establishing a task force unit which involves fostering effective organizational structure and developing a cyber-crime lab. In addition, changes in legislation are also essential element for combatting cybercrime in St. Louis County. Besides, above stated factors, it is prominent to hire competent and skilled personnel having expertise and ability to withstand the continuous changes in the technologies. References Broadhurst, R. (2006). Developments in the global law enforcement of cyber-crime. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management 29(2), 408-433. Doyle, C. (2010). Cybercrime: an overview of the federal computer fraud and abuse statute and related federal criminal laws. Congressional Research Service, 1-92. EC-Council. (2009). Computer forensics: investigation procedures and response. US: Cengage Learning. Gilbreth, T. (2012). Missouri is a front-runner in new crime-fighting frontier. Retrieved from https://www.mosheriffs.com/uploads/20120126/52cbd16011c5c258fc4a732e635b6945.pdf Kerr, O. S. (2005). Search warrants in an era of digital evidence. Mississippi Law Journal, 75, 85-145. Missouri Department of Public Safety. (2011). Fy11 state annual report. Retrieved from http://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/MSHPWeb/SAC/pdf/2011StateAnnualReport.pdf National Center for Justice and the Rule of Law. (2007).Combating cybercrime: essential tools and effective organizational structures. A Guide for Policy Makers and Managers, 1-50. Wexler, C. 2014. Cybercrime: a new critical issue. Police Executive Research Forum, 1-50. Winmill, B. L., Metcalf, D. L., & Band, M. E. (2010). Cybercrime: issues and challenges in the United States. Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review, 7, 19-34. Read More