CYBER
CRIME BUSTERS
Connecticut Law Enforcement Goes Virtual
06/30/04
"Five years ago, I attended
a meeting of all federal agency heads in Connecticut and, without exception,
each representative expressed concern about law enforcement's capability
to address crimes over the Internet, and their inability to handle the
ever-escalating demands of processing seized digital evidence that surfaced
in almost every violation confronting law enforcement today. Our local
and state partners had echoed the same concerns.
" The Connecticut Computer
Crimes Task Force is our collective response to those concerns."
So said FBI Special Agent in Charge Mike Wolf,
at the ribbon cutting ceremony in New Haven for the opening of the state-of
-the-art computer forensic lab yesterday.
What is the "CCCTF"?
It's one of 50 Computer
Crimes Task Forces in the United States that band federal, state and local
officers together in common cause against cyber pedophiles, hackers, thieves
-- the whole range of criminals and terrorists who use computers to plan
and commit crimes. It's staffed with Postal Inspectors; IRS, Secret Service,
DCIS and FBI agents; reps from the Connecticut State Police and Chief State's
Attorney's Office; and detectives from the Glastonbury, Milford, New Haven,
New Britain and Windsor PDs.
CCCTF was created in March
2003 and, bottom line, it has already made a difference in regional cases,
including the public corruption conviction of a former state treasurer
and resolution for a grieving family in the case of a man who met a child
on-line...then later murdered her.
What about that ribbon cutting? What happens
in the lab?
Here is where the rubber
hits the road. In the words of FBI Cyber executive Keith Lourdeau, it "gives
law enforcement the tools and capabilities to meet investigative requirements
of today's technology crimes."
In fact, this lab is the
second of its kind in the country: a place where participating agencies
can deconstruct hardware and software, analyze hard drives and other media,
and recover incriminating files for their cases. Where police and agents
work "virtually" undercover, side by side, to catch sexual predators operating
in chat rooms. Where officers can, in state-of-the-art training labs, become
expert with the tools they need to protect the American people.
That's what these task
forces and these labs are all about: protecting our children, protecting
our pocketbooks, protecting our country and its institutions.
Link: See press
release.
