Cyber Crime Task Force Plan Paper

Cyber Crime Task Force Plan
Jose R. Rosario Jr.
HSM438
Instructor: Earl Ballou
October 29th, 2013

Introduction Since the beginning of the internet new opportunities for criminal activities have increased significantly. Most of America’s government agencies, businesses, citizens, online businesses activities have been subjects of numerous attacks. America is dependent upon its computer networks to ensure operations of its infrastructure and national security. Many problems can be attributed to international crimes like the attack on the financial networks on September 11, 2008. This caused the fall of the stock market from anonymous people using naked shorts that are considered illegal today which was used to destroy our financial
institutions. Other major banking systems that have been hacked into since 2008, consequently, the security of our country is at the mercy of individual hackers both overseas and locally. If in the event that we choose to abandonment our cyber barricades, one unpretentious side door or a single keystroke in the networks of American could affect the economy and power grid of the entire United States. While it might seem melodramatic it is currently a part of life for United States and its citizens.
Many cases of data and identity thefts only show the vulnerability of Americans in terms of the protection of their personal data. With the purpose of addressing these challenges, St. Louis County is responsible to play a part in protecting the country by the enforcement of a cyber-crime unit that is able to assist government institutions, businesses, and citizens to fight against cyber terrorism. The thought is that this will develop into a larger defense strategy which can be linked with other agencies like local law enforcements agencies, police departments, DHS, CIA, ATB, ICE, and FBI. The three most risky cybercrimes affecting citizens in the St. Louis County are known to be sexual solicitation, identity theft, and cyber-attacks affecting individual computers or the networks. In order to protect the county from these crimes the police commissioner has been me to put together and build a special cyber-crime task
force.
Cyber Crime Task Force Plan Online sexual solicitation can be seen in numerous ways and can be achieved even in the coziness of the home of a hacker.
Internet user’s ranges from children of 10 through 17 years of are easy targets for sexual predators. They are masters at convincing teenagers to meet up with them by using internet chat rooms or other social networks like Facebook or My Space. They do this by pretending to be someone who is looking for a friend. Through the creation of a counterfeit profile that displays good-looking pictures of a young boy or girl plus a list of hobbies and interests which was meant by the pedophile to entice a young boy or girl. They are known to do this to persuade the gullible children to interact in person so they can commit deviant sexual acts to them, thereafter in person. When they see each other in person often it will be an adult who kidnaps, rape, and often kill the child after they have done with them. It is not uncommon to find a body that was thrown in a place where they were not being able to discover. Identify theft that is another matter that must be taken seriously, because it has led to billions of dollars and the ruin of many innocent
lives. “The recent emergence of identity crimes as a primary public and law enforcement concern can be viewed as indicative of the more general patterns of growth we have witnessed in computer crimes during the course of the past several decades. The exponential growth in the incidence of identity theft can largely be attributed to the creation of opportunities that are directly linked to technological and commercial advances. These advances have produced an alarming rise in the fraudulent use of individual information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, and credit card numbers by thieves who are intent on using this information for personal gain, and they have forced law enforcement agencies to redirect scarce resources in order to mitigate the threat (Taylor, R. Liederbach, & Holt, p.95, 2011).” The FTC developed the Identity Theft Program which is designed to assist these agencies in enforcing the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 which is a federal response to the widespread incidence of identity theft in recent years. The act explains that personal information is increasingly being used against individuals and businesses to commit fraud. This act, requires officials to create a database of identity theft victim complaints in order to have useful information to consumers and teach them how to protect themselves from identify thieves on line. They are also paid subscription services that you can use to help guard your personal information and let you know if someone is trying to do something in your name. Life lock is one that comes to mind and it is important that people know about companies like Life lock. While they are not immune to protecting you against all attacks they are very affective and provide sort of an online insurance that people can use to protect them against identify thieves. While Identity crime is a worldwide threat. There are other cyber related crimes that can have major consequences and they are cyber-crimes that can be used by terrorist to hurt America’s infrastructure and National Security. Cyber-related crimes that can hurt America’s infrastructure and National Security can be an EMP attack. Electronic Magnetically Impulse and High Energy Impulse and High Energy Radio Frequency can have catastrophic affects to our both local and national infrastructure. “The U.S. is more vulnerable than any other nation on earth to an EMP because she has become totally dependent on electricity and electronics for just about everything used in everyday living. This vulnerability has come about in the last few decades. All of the major enemies of the U.S. are aware of this vulnerability and that this is the easiest way to cripple the United States. Russia has this capability and tested it during the cold war. Some officials from Russia suggested they could use this capability against the United States in 1999 during the Balkans conflict. China now has this capability, and U.S. intelligence sources say that North Korea and Iran are actively developing the technology and capability (Koenig, 2006).” An EMP attack can cause severe blackouts, which would cause severe electrical damage that would cause fires and chaos throughout the country. People would not have water or access to fresh food which would cause people to panic and loot stores and inflicts damage on each other in order to survive. This attack is the easiest one to prevent, but it is also one that many of our leaders take for granted. An EMP attack can destroy hundreds of miles at one time, and it can and will leave communications between emergency responders obsolete because it would destroy all communications. Included in the list are natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornados. While hurricanes give warnings tornados warnings are usually too close to prepare for and can lead to serious destruction. Also, a DOS attack is something that is the easiest to perform. This has had effects on our countries banking system and other government agencies as well as the regular citizen at home. Nobody is immune to this type of attack. In order to protect St Louis Counties all of these problems must be addressed. It is the job of the special task force to address these problems and find solutions to prevent or prepare for all of the circumstances that we addressed. First, to build a cyber-task force we will need to find computer experts from anywhere possible. If it means former cyber-criminals or local computer hackers they must be found. It is far easier and less expensive to find a hacker or cyber-criminal who would like a second chance in life than it is to find the proper resources that come from teaching law officers and emergency planners who do not know how to deal with computer and cyber-related crimes. They can assist it by providing information that only hackers know. They can train other officers and emergency responders and they can also check to see how safe are local infrastructure by trying to find holes in security by attempting to hack into our current computer networks. The important of finding available hackers that will help assist in protecting the county is of the upmost important. Secondly, we must be able to protect the children from predators that work online. “In a recent decision in interactive Digital Software Ass 'n v. St. Louis County case in St. Louis County, Missouri, ordinance restricting the availability of violent video games co minors, the Eighth Circuit found that video games are speech under the First Amendment, and that the county had failed to prove compelling interests in shielding minors from violent games-a showing necessary to regulate speech. This Note analyzes the Interactive decision, and concludes that the court correctly defined video games as speech, but misapplied Supreme Court doctrine establishing that minors and adults have different constitutional rights. This Note suggests that the enactment of local legislation that enforces the industry 's own labeling system is the best approach to the problem of children 's exposure to video game violence. On October 26, 2000, St. Louis County, Missouri, passed an ordinance making it unlawful for any person to knowingly sell, rent, or make available graphically violent video games to minors or to allow minors to play such games without a parent 's or guardian 's consent. The county sought to protect the emotional and mental health of its children, and assist parents to do the same (Phillips, 2004). This case finally came down to this decision. “A group of v video game publishers, distributors, and operators filed suit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in 2002 to have the ordinance declared unconstitutional as an infringement of the First Amendment. The district court denied the in injunction request after holding that video games were not speech for purposes of the First Amendment. Likening them to "baseball and bingo," the court found that games did not "express ideas, impressions, feelings or information unrelated- to the game itself." The Eighth Circuit 's Interactive decision properly applied this analysis, but improperly determined that St. Louis County 's ordinance limiting minors ' access to violent video games without parental consent was unconstitutional. The court failed to recognize that minors and adults have different constitutional rights (Phillips, 2004).” While this decision may seem right by the court it is bad for the big picture. If you are going to protect young children against predator on the internet there must be parental supervision. To say that someone can play a video game that is as violent as an R rated movie without proper parental consent is not only wrong but dangerous. In order to protect minors from predators on the internet they should not be allowed to use any social networks until they are 18 years of age without consent from an adult. If we can somehow come up with a bill that makes it unlawful for underage children to probe the internet without parent or adult supervision, we will never win the war against crimes that are committed by sexual predators online. It is just that simple. Parents must be held accountable as well as people who have computers that children can easily access. What is wrong with locking the computers at home with a certain code and not allowing cell phones that let the child explore the internet? Thirdly in order to prevent more crimes from cyber-predators in St Louis County and thought the country we must awaken the people in these communities. According to an article I found written by Rashid Hussain on March 2nd, 2011 for The International Journal Of Academic Research titled CYBERSPACE TASK FORCE FOR CHILD PROTECTION wrote;” That the general public is not fully aware of the harmful consequences of cyber-crimes. The lack of education and ignorance among different stake- holders of cyberspace results in new dangers to our children. Cybercrime is a serious offense. It is not just the responsibility of the users but also the responsibility of all other stakeholders of Cyberspace to safeguard children interests. In order to break such attitude and ignorance, media could play its role by telecasting short teleplays and messages. Schools and colleges should have education campaigns to boost awareness at grass root level.” He continues by stating; “One of the most disgusting and serious crime on the cyberspace is child pornography. Individuals and webmasters with their sick mind continue to propagate the filth over the cyberspace by exploiting underage user. This is considering as one of the most lucrative business over the web. Cheaper and easily accessible digital technology can produce and disseminates images of child abuse to hundreds of thousands of individuals with a click of a mouse. The sender and the recipient of these images can be anonymous; as a result child pornography is easily available over cyberspace. Google engineers have recently developed software to help track child pornography (Hussain, 2011).” He recommends that it is both the role of the parents and teachers to address these issues in cyber space because they are closes to the children. He also explains the inportants of media awareness because that can lead to billboards television stories and short films that can be an effective tool for awareness campaign. In order to prevent these crimes we must educate the public like Mr. Hussain wrote in his column. When it comes to cyber-protection we must also address the problems and solutions that can help us protect our financial institutions and infrastructure when it comes to both local and national security. Fourthly, a denial of service attack or DOS attack is almost unpreventable. These attacks come from Trojan and malware being unknowingly downloaded by people who think that it is ordinary software. Depending on the type of Trojan or malware virus that is installed the computer the targeted computer may be exposed to direct surveillance. If someone puts let’s say a key logger program on your computer when you are not around or you actually downloaded one without realizing it. It will allow the recording of keystrokes done on the computer that it has targeted. This leads to the person vulnerable to the hacker and the hacker can collect personal information such as passwords it needs to use for identity theft. Once this happens the computer in question will cause websites to be inaccessible and will eventually turn off. This is and happens in a denial of service attack. This can lead to revenue losses for the businesses or person who have been targeted not to mention the companies that do business over the internet. They results can be financially devastating for both the victim and the companies they do business with online. “Defending against DoS attacks includes some basic issues. These issues should be taken care of by any organization or individual having hosts connected to the Internet. All defense mechanisms listed in this subsection are effective also in preventing or making it more difficult to exploit logic DoS attacks. All unnecessary services should be removed. The less there are applications and open ports in hosts, the less there are vulnerabilities to be exploited by an attacker. Default installations of operating systems often include many applications not needed by a user. Especially many home-users do not even know what services are running on their systems. A vulnerability scanner can be used to detect what network services (open ports) are available in a network. A firewall (or a router with similar abilities) should be used to control access to a network. Even if there are many services available from local hosts, not all of these services need to be accessible from the public Internet (Mölsä, 2005).” These are just one issue that can protect your computer against identity thieves but what about attacks by terrorists like an Electronic Magnetic Pulse attack or EMP. What can be done to protect our network? Next as I wrote earlier an EMP ATTACK can destroy hundreds of miles at one time, and it can and will leave communications between emergency responders obsolete because it would destroy all communications. There is a bi-partison bill HR2417 that is in front of Congress today. According to Congress.gov “The Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act or SHIELD Act - Amends the Federal Power Act to authorize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), with or without notice, hearing, or report, to order emergency measures to protect the reliability of either the bulk-power system or the defense critical electric infrastructure whenever the President issues a written directive or determination identifying an imminent grid security threat.” This bill was introduces in the house on 06/18/2013 and we are waiting for the President signature at this time. It is probably the most underrated bill as far as importants that has been brought up before Congress. The fact that it is Bi-partisan shows that it is about the protection of America from this kind of attack. In addition with the emergence of cyber-predators exposing themselves to our children has caused great concern for the jurisdictions of St. Louis County. Compiled with identity thieves and threats of natural and man -made disasters like an Electronic Magnetic Pulse attack has been of grave concern to the local county as well as around the country. While trying to put people into place there are just so many things that a city can do. If you can control local crime like internet predators, but do not make it illegal for children under the age of 18 to join social networks, it is a hard battle to win. In order to win this battle we must change the laws requiring use of the internet. If you make a law requiring social networks and chat rooms on the internet to post warnings that you cannot enter unless given permission by a parent or an adult. Than you are never going to stop the problem all you are doing is letting more young people fall victims of these types of predators. Google has come a long way with developing software to track child pornography it still is not enough. There must be laws in place that makes it illegal for children to go into social networks and chat rooms without adult orb parental supervision. If we can do that we can prevent about 80 percent of the sexual crimes against children. Finally, with the hiring of former hackers who want a new life St. Louis County and its jurisdiction can help prevent cyber-attacks from identity thieves. They also can test the security in their local infrastructure to see if it can be hacked into in order to prevent future attacks like a DOS attack. If we can bill HR 2417 passed than are electrical sights we can prevent future attacks on our infrastructure and national security. However, when it comes to identity thieves the best thing to do is to educate the public and government agencies what to do in order to protect them from such an attack.

References
H.R.2417 - Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act 113th Congress (2013-2014) at http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/2417
Hussain, R. (2011). CYBERSPACE TASK FORCE FOR CHILD PROTECTION. International Journal Of Academic Research, 3(2), 1001-1007.
Koenig, D. (2006) Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) caused by a nuclear explosion high over the United States - Imminent danger to the U.S. # 1 at http://www.thepropheticyears.com/comments/Imminent%20danger%201%20-%20Electromagnetic%20Pulse%20explosion%20(EMP)%20over%20the%20United%20States.htm
Mölsä, J. (2005). Mitigating denial of service attacks: A tutorial. Journal Of Computer Security, 13(6), 807-837.
Phillips, N. (2004). INTERACTIVE DIGITAL SOFTWARE ASS 'N V. ST. LOUIS COUNTY: THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND MINORS ' ACCESS TO VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 19(1), 585-611.
The Federal Bureau of investigation http://www.fbi.gov/stlouis/about-us/history-1
Taylor, R. W., Fritsch, E. J., Liederbach, J., & Holt, T. J. p.95 (2011) Digital crime and digital terrorism (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.