Cybercrime Frontline Blog

[#1]

Computers don’t commit crimes, people do. 

The most difficult challenge for law enforcement in many cybercrime cases is “putting a suspect at the keyboard”.   Recent news stories have highlighted law enforcement’s frustration with the lack of focus on the human elements of cybercrime.   Too often cybercrime is framed as a purely technical challenge.  The fact that real human criminals are behind these schemes can be forgotten.  A  specific individual must be identified to make an arrest and charge a crime. 

“Attribution” is the task of identifying a specific cybercriminal.  This process begins often by utilizing digital forensics to examine the patterns and tools used in an attack.  This is a scientific and complex process.  During my time as a prosecutor, I worked with many digital forensic examiners on cases.  The forensic examiner was always the most important witness at trial.  The examiner  is the witness who  literally examines the “crime scene” and can provide the evidence that proves that the suspect was the person  behind a cyber attack.

Some cybercriminals follow known patterns and this may be a way to identify them.  In one case that I prosecuted, the forensic examiner reviewed evidence seized from a suspect but there was no way to directly connect the suspect to the crime.  However, the examiner was able to identify non-criminal evidence on the computer that was clearly linked to the suspect.  This circumstantial evidence provided a strong degree of proof that the suspect used the computer and was at the terminal close in time to the period during which the crimes occurred.  This critical evidence, provided by the forensic examiner, resulted in the successful prosecution of the cybercriminal.

I teach a law school class on cybercrime and at the beginning of the first class I always remind students that cybercrimes are crimes committed by real persons abusing technology.  It’s important to remember that technology is not bad.  Unfortunately, sometimes people do bad things with technology.

[#2]

My 12 year old daughter was recently online and she recieved nude pictures sent to her email by someone in their 40ish

I feel ...don't even have words for it. How do you protect your kids?

[#3]

I know how difficult it can be for the police to positively connect an individual to an attack ~ even when they have an IP for the guilty person, and emails/bragging/threats from that person to some of their victims clearly exposes his/her guilt, the police still have to "catch the culprit(s) red handed" ~ it is so easy for some of these slime to deny it was them, claim that someone else may have accessed their computer, or hint that their computer might be compromised...

I know of an individual, and a couple of groups he belongs to, and a couple of "social sites" that are effectively assisting/guarding/supporting their activities ~ where these people are spreading viruses/malware, and attempting to "hack" and break into some computer sytems ~ including past attacks againt me..

A further problem for some of us on the receiving end of some of these "attempted hacks" and "cyber bullying" efforts, is actually finding the police and cyber-security individuals to report these attacks to, so that my report isn't simply buried and snowed-under at the entry level ?

[#4]

@qmischief--a big part of it is open communication...something which it seems you already have going for you if she came to you with this when it happened. On that you're to be congratulated, because that trust is about half the battle.

Now you have a "teachable moment." When something like this happens online, we need to talk with our kids--with them, not just "at" or "to" them--about some of the ways that something that may have seemingly started out reasonably innocent developed into something like this...and what the warning signs were along the way that should alert them to the danger should they appear with someone else in the future. Or some of the ways in which something like what just happened has, for other kids, escalated into the physical world and cost someone something that can never be regained--nor even returned to them by the legal system.

When we were young, the threat may have been the "friendly stranger in the black sedan." Predators have always been with us, and that's always made it part of our job as parents not merely to watch over our kids...but also to teach them, prepare them, to watch out for themselves. And to reinforce the trust that always lets them be both knowledgeable and confident that when certain lines are crossed, they have people they can go to, on whom they can rely to help them stay safe--and that first among those people are mom and dad.

[#5]

@DistEd2 -- I agree with your post, but sadly there is an alarming reality that is just recently being brought to light.  I see more often that parents are being charged with neglect of a minor than in the past around my area from the local newstations.  There are some situations that were mistakes, but sadly the majority of these cases is because the parents are on drugs/alcohol, or are in too big of a hurry to even notice their children being left alone.

When these children turn to their teachers/counselors in schools oftentimes they are brushed off as being a nuisance.  Their only choice left in their eyes is to go to the police, and alot of times they can get the help they need from situations that have happened to them.  It is shocking that so many children have to rely on a stranger (the police) to help them when the people in their lives are not, or they choose not to help them.

However, there are more parents taking responsibility to protect their children, and to be there for them more in recent months.  It seems that all of these campaigns to better educate people about the dangers of cybercriminals is starting to pay off, but there is still alot that needs to be done.