The UK's law enforcement agencies are fighting back as
organised crime makes heavy investments in technology andhackingskills.
The Serious Organised Crime
Agency (Soca) is leading the fight against computer criminals,
alongside
specialist local police computer crime units. The organisation
was created last year from the merger of the
National Hi-Tech Crime Unit
(NHTCU), the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal
Intelligence Service, and parts of HM Revenue and Customs and the
UK Immigration Service.
In an exclusive interview with Computer Weekly - her first since
the creation of
Soca - Sharon Lemon, former head of the NHTCU and leader of
Soca's e-crime unit, said the organisation brought together a wider
range of skills and powers to fight crime.
Its formation recognises that computers and networks add a new
dimension to old crimes and create opportunities for new ones, with
e-threats arising worldwide, she said.
Soca has 4,000 staff and a budget of £416m. It is responsible
for investigating and preventing crimes such as organised drug
smuggling, fraud, money laundering and financing terrorism, as well
as e-crimes.
The idea that work on e-crime stopped when Soca took over the
NHTCU is a misconception, Lemon said. She pointed to a
high-profile
success last year, when two identity fraudsters were convicted
on evidence collected by Soca. They had nearly £200,000 confiscated
under the
Proceeds
of Crime Act.
"We prepared a show-and-tell of how the gang operated, which was
presented to the jury on a laptop," said Lemon. "The judge
commented that this probably halved the time and cost of the
trial."
Cross-border justice
In another case, Soca achieved a world first in cross-border
justice when it worked with Russian police to persuade a Moscow
court to use its evidence to convict three Russians for distributed
denial of service attacks designed to extort money from UK online
gambling firms Betfair and
Blue Square.
Lemon has spent much of the past year building up relationships
and networks with other e-crime units, particularly in the US,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but also in the former Eastern
Bloc. This work led to Moscow setting up its own high-tech crime
unit.
"We can now call on a network of 140 Soca offices in 40
countries to help in an investigation," she said. "This gives us
the largest reach of any law enforcement organisation in the world,
except for the US Drug Enforcement Administration."
Lemon stressed that the e-crime unit has access to all Soca
staff and their investigative and operational powers for any case.
"We have more capability now than we had at the NHTCU," she
said.
"My mission is to create a climate of fear for the online
criminal. We want them to know that we can and will track them down
wherever they are." Lemon's view is coloured by her experience as
head of the
National Crime Squad's paedophile online investigation
team.
Early intervention
Lemon worries about the time it takes to bring criminals to
justice. "Our mission is to prevent harm to UK citizens," she says.
"But investigations and trials can take three or four years. I
think we need to intervene sooner to make things harder for
e-criminals."
Soca's strategy is to gather intelligence about threats and the
methods used, attack them, and so cut the room criminals have to
operate.
Through Soca and other agencies, Lemon would like to see
harmonisation of legislation that would make it easier to
investigate and prosecute e-criminals in other jurisdictions. This
would require action from the European Council and other
international law-making bodies.
In the meantime, she is developing relations with G8 members,
Interpol, Europol and others to get "push-button co-operation".
This worked recently in tracking and arresting one of Norway's most
wanted fugitives, an alleged murderer of police officers, she
said.
Local e-crime challenge
Although Soca's work on the international front has shown
results, the local e-crime-fighting scene is confused. For example,
local police have been referring card fraud victims to their banks,
rather than taking on investigations themselves.
Businesses and security professionals
warned in April that the merger of the NHCTU into Soca could
leave a gap in the policing of technology-related crime.
Their concerns, that victims of computer crimes that cross local
police borders have nowhere to report them, have yet to be
resolved.
Lemon pointed out that, although the NHTCU took reports of
e-crimes, it was never a reporting body - and neither is Soca.
Plans to set up a centralised e-crime co-ordination unit under
the Association of Chief Police Officers, could help. But this
project is strapped for cash - something a House of
Lords select committee has asked the government to supply "without
delay".
The committee has also called for e-crime to be reported to a
central point, and, separately, a Fraud Review has proposed a fraud
reporting centre.
"These are all interesting developments that need to be
considered as a whole," said Lemon. Soca's e-crime unit could
benefit if information on computer crime is reported to a central
point, she said.
The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit
The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) was launched on 18 April
2001 as the lynchpin in the UK's response to cybercrime. It
undertook national investigations of serious and organised crimes
that used IT, and achieved a 94% conviction rate. It also consulted
to local forces and other agencies, liaised with government on
policy issues and provided a 24-hour point of contact for G8
countries.
The NHTCU contained elements from the National Crime Squad, the
National Criminal Intelligence Service, HM Customs and Excise and
police forces, and worked closely with the IT industry. It was
absorbed by the Serious Organised Crime Agency on 1 April 2006.
Operation Tertiary: the Gelonkin case
The Serious Organised Crime Agency played a major role in
Operation Tertiary, an international investigation into a crime
gang that used the internet to obtain credit card and bank account
numbers from unsuspecting Britons.
Gang members Anton Gelonkin and Aleksei Kostap used the accounts
to steal at least £900,000 through online gambling sites and eBay,
and police believe the real total could run into several million
pounds.
The gang transferred funds from legitimate credit card accounts
to credit accounts registered with online betting companies. They
were able to set up the accounts under the names and addresses of
the compromised account holders using forged identity
documents.
When the gaming industry took countermeasures, Gelonkin and
Kostap changed tack, using compromised credit cards to buy goods
from internet retailers, which were delivered to PO box addresses
opened using false identities.
The gang resold the merchandise on eBay, withdrawing profits in
cash and transferring it overseas using Western Union, offshore
banking services and unregulated online banking facilities.
National Crime Squad officers arrested Gelonkin and Kostap on 19
January 2005. Gelonkin pleaded guilty, and Kostap was found guilty
at trial on 27 November 2006. Gelonkin and Kostap were subject to
confiscation orders for £156,654 and £30,705 respectively in July
2007.