Secret Search in Fighting Cybercrime
Date: November 19, 2003Source: Computer Crime Research Center
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... 360 was advertised as the best in the world. Myth about backwardness of Soviet computer facilities and hopeless expectation about planned cooperation of the USSR with European countries simultaneously appeared. Such political mistake has struck the USSR off the list of leaders in IT field.
NextThe total amount of software sales all over the world tends to 15 billion dollars per year. Main part of this sum is received by USA, India, Russia. An intellectual resource of Ukraine is 50 thousand highly skilled programmers.
Speaking about the field of national security maintenance, it is necessary to note that main trends of information provision of law enforcement bodies' activity. On one hand today, it is necessary to start with those new opportunities of present-day computers, particularly, multimedia, ICT and special equipment facilities. On the other hand, we should take into account those negative processes in a society related to emerging criminal situations, development of organized crime, corruption, terrorism, shadow economy.
It is necessary to consider one of essential circumstances for first of all. It is an application of IT, practically, in all areas of a life. It also includes consistent "informatization" of various spheres of criminal activity. Several years ago question was about some exotic computer crimes. Today it is obvious, that society is facing a problem of high technologies application both for preparation and committing crimes, and for ducking out, and first of all, for resistance to law enforcement bodies.
Ideas of criminal environment presence and necessity of intelligence and preventive actions were rather progressive at the beginning of forming a conception about organized crime. However nowadays, penetration of organized crime in all spheres of social, economic and political life of a society is becoming more and more obvious. An extremely high danger to a society and “new problems” to law enforcement brings increasing criminal control of global computer networks, communications, radio, media etc.
Situation becomes more acute by reason of growing use of certain activities of organized crime, such as system intrusion and destruction.
System intrusion crimes. If “traditional criminality” has extrusive system character, i.e. it is being extruded, squeezed out by system of social and legal relations from public life. It is creating, however, its own relations and organized communities, developing traditions and generating a criminal subculture. An intrusion system criminality, is being intruded, penetrated and built in. It starts to play an essential role in system of social, legal, financial, economic relations.
Criminal intent and character of concrete acts that makes a basis of intrusion system criminal activity are extremely hard to prove within a shape of current criminal legislation and practice of application of legal regulations.
Destruction system criminality. Other feature of modern organized crime is related to its destructive character. While "traditional" organized crime has constructive character, i.e. it develops the forbidden types of activity. It establishes criminal control over illegal economy or develops various spheres of shadow economy, using hired labor, creating new workplaces. Destruction system criminality takes incomes due to destruction of a concrete field of economy, due to property and material assets redistribution. First of all, it withdraws financial assets from manufacture, from budgets of local, regional and national levels.
The higher forms of destruction system criminality are: criminal terrorism, mass kidnapping on purpose of profit, unleashing local military conflicts by reason of ethnic collisions and separative movements, i.e. extraction of incomes from destruction of social relations, from undermining of State system, from redistribution of "spheres of influence".
Among new features of the organized crime it is necessary to emphasize growing «social security» both of criminal leaders, and active members of large criminal formations. At the same time, cases of "social incompetence" of law enforcement become more frequent.
Some circumstances, i.e. penetration of organized crime into various spheres of social life, increasing character of system intrusion and destruction of present-day criminality, «social security» and, at last, extending application of IT in criminal activity, demand adequate response from law enforcement, development of new directions of IT counteraction and new "non-traditional" approaches in fighting organized crime [2].
IT impetuous development leads to situation when many social phenomena find reflection in so-called "virtual worlds", i.e. in those information means as carriers of global computer networks and systems, mass media. Because of fact that organized crime now affects different parts of a social, economic and political life of society, fight against it should provide application of all possible means and methods which have been earlier applied against special services and armies of other countries. This fight naturally should cover "information spheres" which include first of all mass media, and also means of communications, global computer networks, industry of various information services.
Let's pay attention to that fact, that essential increase in efficiency of fighting against up-to-date criminality can be achieved by wide use of modern IT opportunities and special facilities of intelligence services. Again, it demands creation and development of new directions of IT provision of operative search and investigatory activity.
Until recently, informatization of law enforcement activity has lied only in purchasing new computers and accounting automation. At the best, they may have implemented network technologies, information exchange, but with no conceptual framework. Moreover, such new categories of operative search and investigatory activity as: analytical, computer, information intelligence, information security assurance, information psychological influence, yet have not found sufficient coverage in special scientific and educational literature, and also in work of operative search and investigatory departments of law enforcement bodies.
Necessity of such directions as analytical, computer, information intelligence, provoked both criticism concerned with incomplete understanding of a problem by experts. They many years were engaged in a problem of informatization, in particular of law enforcement bodies, and criticism of officials who came to law enforcement bodies from special services and they were engaged in intelligence and secret services activity.
Criticism of the first lied in concept "computer intelligence". This action is not mentioned, in particular, among given in Secret Search Law secret search actions. According to criticism, such term never has existed and should not ever be. When we speak about new directions of secret search, it is enough to use only secret technical actions.
When a legal substantiation of new directions of IT application in secret search actions was defined (such as computer, analytical intelligence), there were reasons for still more criticism. It was that intelligence is legal when it lies in a legal field, and actions which are carried out, say, by sanction of a judge are not intelligence actions. And generally, an opinion has been expressed, that concept "intelligence" is immeasurably more wide and scaled, than concept "secret search activity".
Actually, several years ago concept "intelligence" was not related with a complex of actions directed on fighting against criminality, and was in certain sense tabooed. In works on information analytical provision of secret search activity the term “secret analytical search” [3] has been defined.
However, it was marked in these works, that it is necessary to retain and enhance all secret tactical opportunities of traditional department of law enforcement. Also it is important to do it while getting any information from any sources about organized crime special service focused on deep intelligence of criminal environment. It is significant to examine phenomena and facts, which make it up or testify about it.
For many years, there is a concept "strategic intelligence" in activity of law enforcement in US, Germany and other countries. It includes reception, accumulation, systematization and the analysis of numerous and rather various data on suspected persons involved in organized crime, including even such data which, at first sight, have no direct attitude to criminal activity. Unlike strategic intelligence, a primary task of "tactical investigation" is assistance in planning concrete police operations and in establishing sources of proofs reception, which would allow to put suspect under arrest and to establish his guilt.
Speaking about age-old dispute on breadth of concepts "secret search activity" and "intelligence", it is necessary to recognize that secret search includes the broadest complex of both public and private actions, the majority of which carries an intelligence character.
Certainly, "intelligence" in broad sense is extremely capacious concept, which has absorbed vast variety of activity of both secret and open reception of diverse information. It also includes an application of various means and methods (radio, space intelligence). Moreover, it will be literally to say, that concept "intelligence", in a...
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