[iwar] [fc:How.the.Secret.Service.became.cybercops]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-06-26 06:34:40

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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 06:34:40 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:How.the.Secret.Service.became.cybercops]
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This story was printed from ZDNN,
        located at http://zdnet.com.com/2001-11-0.
        --------------------------------------------------------------

How the Secret Service became cybercops
By Robert Vamosi 
ZDNet Reviews
June 26, 2002, 4:30 AM PT
URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-939425.html 

        COMMENTARY--Trained in martial arts, sworn to secrecy, famous
for high-tech earplugs and icy stares, the oldest law enforcement agency
in the federal government--the U.S.  Secret Service--is now protecting
our national interests online. 

"Cybercrime today is the equivalent of counterfeiting in the 1860s,"
said special agent John Frazzini, speaking to security professionals at
the NetSec 2002 conference in San Francisco last week.  Frazzini related
the simple rationale behind the decision to make the Secret Service, a
law enforcement agency best known for protecting the U.S.  president,
our nation's elite cybercops: The country needed someone to protect the
economy. 

BACK IN 1865, when the Secret Service was formed, counterfeiting was
rife and law enforcement nonexistent.  With no centralized banking
facilities to issue and store official U.S.  currency, local banks often
printed their own--which was often nonstandard and easily altered. 
Recognizing that counterfeiting threatened to undermine the U.S. 
economy, President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury Hugh
McCulloch created a branch of the U.S.  Treasury Dept.  to protect the
nation's money supply. 

Over the years, this law enforcement agency within the Treasury acquired
other responsibilities.  In 1894, 13 years after the assassination of
President James Garfield, the Secret Service was charged with protecting
President Grover Cleveland.  In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt
transferred a few agents to the Justice Department, effectively forming
an early version of the FBI.  In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson assigned
the Secret Service to investigate espionage.  In 1984, when Congress
made credit and debit card fraud a federal offense, it put the Secret
Service in charge of violations relating to credit and debit card fraud,
federal-interest computer fraud, and fraudulent identification documents

Fact is, amid the recent buzz about the FBI's need to upgrade its
computer technology, the Secret Service has been quietly handling
cybercrime cases for some time--and with great success. 

Still, the public introduction to the Secret Service's role as the
nation's team of top cybercops was not very auspicious.  In May 1990,
federal and local agents raided homes in 15 different cities, seizing
computers suspected of hosting bulletin boards containing illegal
software, credit card numbers, and telephone access codes.  Operation
Sundevil, as the action became known, grew out of a joint effort by the
Phoenix Secret Service and the Arizona Attorney General's office.  It
was one of the first major cybercrime events; one that, according to
Bruce Sterling's 1992 book, Hacker Crackdown, did little to stop the
spread of illegal software, credit card numbers, or telephone access
codes. 

ANOTHER RESPONSIBILITY of the Secret Service is to help local law
enforcement with computer crime investigations.  When called upon, the
Secret Service offers police an Electronic Crime Investigation unit that
handles Internet fraud, network intrusion, network destruction, and
identity theft.  To make these groups as effective as possible, the
Electronic Crime Special Agent Program (ECSAP) trains agents in computer
networking and digital forensics.  The program, said Frazzini, is funded
entirely by the forfeiture of money and property from prosecuted
criminals--no taxpayer money is used at all. 

The Secret Service has also aided local law enforcement by forming
special task forces that combine federal, state, and local law
enforcement agencies; private companies; and universities.  The first
one, located in New York City, was called the New York Electronic Crimes
Task Force (NYECTF).  This model--which combines public, private, and
academic resources--proved so successful in combating computer crime
that the Secret Service is now creating other task forces in Houston,
Cleveland, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Las Angeles,
Miami, and Washington, D.C. 

Prior to Sept.  11, the NYECTF office was housed in Building 7 of the
World Trade Center.  The destruction of the World Trade Center claimed
all the case files and evidence residing within the NYECTF, but none of
its agents.  Within 48 hours, the agents were back in business with help
from other law enforcement agencies, corporations, and universities--all
of which donated equipment and volunteered man-hours to rebuild the
office.  Apparently, a decade of quietly rebuilding its image after
Operation Sundevil paid off for the Secret Service. 

While the FBI makes headlines for lacking up-to-date computing skills,
the Secret Service is slated to settle into the new Department of
Homeland Security.  But you probably won't hear much about it.  They're
the quiet men and women dressed in black, working the background, just
doing their jobs. 

Do you approve of the Secret Service functioning as our nation's
cybercops? Would you be interested in assisting their task force in your
area? TalkBack to me below. 

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