December 16, 2012
As society evolves, so too does the methods used for the enforcement of laws enacted by society. Within the evolution of law enforcement, there have been a number of discernable stages. For example, hundreds of years ago, laws were enforced town by town with little interaction between one town and another. As faster modes of communication and transportation evolved, law enforcement evolved to reflect related changes in society. Out of necessity, towns began working together to enforce laws in ways that would be mutually beneficial. As modes of communication continued to improve and trains, highways, and airplanes became the most common modes of transportation, the addition of a federal component to law enforcement was an inevitable by-product. Today, with the widespread use of the Internet as a primary mode of communication worldwide, we are at the beginning of a notably new stage in the evolution of law enforcement.
The Global Stage of Law Enforcement Evolution
Crime is no longer a purely local or even just a national issue. The Internet has provided a forum for criminal elements all over the world to commit crimes without concern for either geographic boarders or the laws of different nations. The old ways of enforcing laws based on geographically designated jurisdictions are quickly passing.
Where We Are and Where We Want to Be
An evolution occurs so gradually that it is very difficult to recognize the process when viewed through short-term windows of time. Though evolution generally isn’t planned, it is quite possible to steer it in specific directions. By accurately anticipating the course of evolution, we can take certain actions that will steer evolution toward a path somewhat of our own choosing. If we aren’t able to anticipate the path we want to be on, then it may take numerous course corrections, and corresponding longer periods of time, for us to get to our desired point in the evolutionary continuum.
Internationally Organized, Internet Facilitated Crime (IOIFC)
IOIFC is a new form of crime that has been spreading rapidly across the globe over the past two decades. National laws intended to protect individual nations against this rapid-evolving, geographical-borderless crime cannot be enforced without cooperation among the nations that hold the various pieces to an investigation. To steer the path of law enforcement evolution that will become the eventual by-product of this growing tide of IOIFC, anticipation of the most effective course on which to steer is going to require a global, geographically borderless approach.
Recent Attempts by the FBI to Steer the Evolution of Law Enforcement
The FBI has long recognized the difficulties associated with applying geographical bounded laws to the IOIFC problem. For example, the FBI field office in New Haven, Connecticut was recently recognized by the Attorney General of the United States for its groundbreaking effort to stop an international criminal network from using its global network of infected, Internet-connected computers (known as a Botnet) that were being used to steal private personal information from victims throughout the world. No criminals were identified, arrested or prosecuted, but that investigation and its innovative application of existing United States laws essentially seized control of the Botnet from the hands of the criminal controllers, thus putting an end to the bleeding of such personal data into the hands of criminal organizations.
In another major international effort undertaken by the FBI in New Haven beginning in June 2005, a large but loosely organized group of Romanians from the town of Craiova, Romania engaged in a specific type of IOIFC known as phishing. Phishing involved a number of steps which, used together, enabled the Romanians to successfully trick individuals into giving out their private personal information. The Romanians involved committed their crimes against United States citizens without ever stepping foot in the United States.
FBI New Haven’s Objectives for its IOIFC Phishing Investigation
There were a number of evolutionary objectives that arose from this phishing investigation. The main objective was to deter criminals operating from beyond the boarders of the United States from committing crimes against the United States and its citizens. Another objective was to test international relationships and laws that could be used to bring criminals to justice that operate outside the legal jurisdiction of a nation being harmed by the criminal activity. A third objective was to test a May 2009 update to an extradition treaty between the United States and Romania that contained provisions for the United States to request the direct extradition of Romanian citizens that have been charged with IOIFC-type crimes.
In January 2007, seven Romanian citizens were indicted in the District of Connecticut for crimes associated with phishing. Between June 2007 and September 2009, three of the indicted subjects, who had traveled outside of Romania, were arrested as a result of Interpol Red Notices issued from the 2007 indictments. These arrests occurred in Bulgaria, Canada, and Croatia.
http://www.justice.gov/usao/ct/Press2009/20090330-2.html
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Romanian-Phisher-To-Spend-50-Months-in-a-U-S-Prison-108191.shtml
In November 2010, an additional fourteen Romanian citizens were indicted as co-conspirators of the seven from the 2007 indictment. As a test of the May 2009 treaty update, a request was made from the United States to Romania for the extradition of thirteen individuals believed to be living in Romania. As of December 11, 2012, seven of the thirteen have been successfully extradited, six had plead guilty, and one was convicted at trial in the District of Connecticut.
http://www.justice.gov/usao/ct/Press2012/20121211-1.html
The message to international criminals, as delivered by Special Agent in Charge Kimberly Mertz went as follows:
“The FBI has a crucial message to those who are inclined to commit similar crimes: Our reach is global, and working with our exceptional international law enforcement partners, as in Romania, we have the ability to extradite you from across the world. Whether or not you ever step foot in this country, if you commit crimes against the United States, and in this case by operating a sophisticated Internet phishing scheme, the FBI will find you and bring you to justice.”
The Final Evolution
The final course of the evolution of law enforcement to the global stage may, or may not, involve the seizing of the tools used by international cyber criminals as was the case with the Botnet investigation. It also may, or may not, involve the extradition of criminals from one country to another as was seen in the phishing investigation. Regardless of the path law enforcement eventually settles on, these are two examples of steps leading to that path. We are in the midst of law enforcement history writing itself and I can’t help but wonder what will happen next or how that history will be remembered 50 years from now!
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