The International Cyber Cop Unit

coondoggie writes "A group of international cyber cops is ramping up plans to fight online crime across borders. The unit, known as the Strategic Alliance Cyber Crime Working Group, met this month in London and is made up of high-level online law enforcement representatives from the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. One of the main goals of the group is to fight cyber crime in a common way by sharing intelligence, swapping tools and best practices, and strengthening and synchronizing their respective laws."

Comments

Another Cyber Control Group?

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

Just what we need, another vigilante group patrolling the intertubes. As if the americans didn't have enough of these already.

Re:Another Cyber Control Group?

[Brian Gordon]

That is what we need. What we don't need is a semi-legitimate government-sponsored group operating way out of their legal jurisdiction.

Re:Another Cyber Control Group?

[sasha328]

Just what we need, another vigilante group patrolling the intertubes. As if the americans didn't have enough of these already. Could you please elaborate on how you define the FBI, AFP, NZP, RCMP and the Scotland Yard as vigilantes?

It is really frustrating the kind of responses to this kind of story. I wonder what the slashdot troll would write when or if this agency manages to arrest a nasty spammer. My guess it'll probably be in the YRO section decrying the freedom to spam.

"Cyber Cops"?

[webmaster404]

Do we really need more laws/people trying to "protect" us online? It has already been proven with laws like the DMCA that congress has no clue how the internet/modern technology works. And adding law enforcement is just an excuse to add more laws that do nothing but annoy us law abiding citizens. And also, if white hat hackers can't get the real criminals, there is no way that these "cyber cops" are going to be able too unless they say control a botnet. This just is more excuse to block "warez" and "piracy".

Another unPolice.

[gnutoo]

The US can't get the FBI, CIA and NSA to play nice with each other or the hundreds of state and local athorities. I'm supposed to believe that there will be real international cooperation? Yet another UN police force, what a joke.

I'd like to see bot hearders busted but I don't have any faith in this new super team to get it done. What we will probably see is this team putting pressure on other governments to support imaginary property. At it's worst, it will be used to track dissidents and limit free speech world wide, while criminals continue to do what they always have.

Re:Another unPolice.

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Honestly, unless these people have TONS of bandwidth (or tons of Linux install CDs) there's no way they can take down these botnets.

I've sat in on talks from several different security researchers who infiltrated botnets and reverse engineered them. That doesn't take a lot of bandwidth. It takes a few honeypots, a decompiler, and and IRC client. They could also have issued a command to redirect the entire botnet to a new control channel under their control and from there disabled the botnet, even patching the vulnerability used to gain control in many cases. People don't do that, not because it isn't possible, or they need more bandwidth. They don't do it because of the legal liability. They have no authority to take control of other people's machines (even if someone else also has control). Worse in many cases, what if they try to patch it and the patch fails? Well, then the researcher is liable for any damage than ensues. No one wants to take that risk.

Stealing bots from other botnet herders is already common practice among crackers. It is perfectly possible for cops to steal them back, it just is a legal nightmare to do so, especially if you aren't even sure whose jurisdiction all those machines are in.

Re:We should sic em on the MAFIAA

[webmaster404]

We should sic em on the MAFIAA

Chances are they are taking orders from the *AA. Only enforcing draconian laws like the DMCA and not doing any real work done, as most government agencies do, never stop the real criminals but stop the easy "crime" that everyone does.

Re:You realize what they really mean

[Anonymous Coward]

Evil (non-copyright) pirates do exist. Africa & Pacific Asia are chock full of them. Human smuggling > downloading DVDs = Real Problem

Re:We should sic em on the MAFIAA

[Opportunist]

Duh. Which headline is the better PR?

"Millions spent, no communists/terrorists/badguyofthemonth caught"
or
"Sting busts ring of (insert random number) illegal filesharers".

When you run security like a profit center (i.e. compare money spent to criminals caught), which ones would you go for? The ones that are hard to catch but pose a threat, or the ones that are easy to catch even though 99% of the population don't care about their 'crime'?

Re:Nice name for a group

[TheLink]

Nah the first thing I thought of when I saw the countries participating was ECHELON.

I think they're probably going to scare the people to help justify spying and dubious stuff (like the spread of nasty policies to other countries).

I'm personally not afraid of all that malware, while there are lots of bots, there aren't that many hackers out there actually controlling those bots.

The fact that the cops have done little is mainly because it is not a priority. After all they could always follow the _money_. I am sure that some of the money trails will lead to their jurisdiction. Then you could also do stings.

I'm more afraid of the policies and laws that will result from this "cooperation", because they will probably try to infect other countries with the resulting mal-laws.

PIGS IN CYBERSPACE!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

First against the wall, when the revolution comes.

Re:PIGS IN CYBERSPACE!

[PopeRatzo]

Way to advocate the murder of cops.

Excuse me, douchebag, but before you get all exercised about the notion of poor, noble boys in blue fighting crime on the mean streets of our cities, remember, these are "cybercops" we're talking about here.

They'll be the same ones who listen in on our phone calls and pressure ISPs to give up subscriber info. They'll be the same ones who monitor the surveillance cams and figure out ways to leverage your credit or medical records against you.

Calling them "cybercops" gives them too much credit. They're the toadies working for Big Brother.

And all the GP said was "first ones against the wall". He didn't say what happens next. That was your own imagination at work, son.

Re:PIGS IN CYBERSPACE!

[AlecC]

Just becasue they are cybercops does not mean that they are necessarily bad guys. Cybercops, like any kind of cops, are a necessary evil: laws must be enforced, so we need law enforcers. If people would do the right thing without enforcers, you wouldn't need a law to tell them to do so. (Or course, laws which cannot or should not be enforced should be repealed; see you local legislator about this, not the police.) The problem is not the existence of cops, not (within broad limits) their powers. It is the checks and balances that need to be in place to ensure that their powers are not exceeded and that they are used in pursit of the ends for which they were allocated.

I absolutely accept that there is a need for police to tap electronic communications at some times. But not at any time a single policeman, however senior, thinks that he would like to. It is not tapping that is bad, it is tapping without a warrant. The executive branch needs some oversight, which is usually provided by the judicial branch i.e. the policeman needs to get a warrant from a judge, whose appointment needs to be transparent enough to ensure that he is not in cahoots with the policeman.

So I think your knee-jerk response to the concept of cybercops is excessive, and damaging. I want them bugging Osama bin Laden's phone calls. I don't want them bugging my, or my neighbours (equally innocent of major crime, though probably mostly guilty of the odd misdemeanor) phones. And i want to know who, and how, it watching to see tha this is so. But I don't want the head in the sand attitud of "they are all evil". They won't go away, and you may make them evil becasue, since you assume they are evil, they have nothing to lose by being evil. Support your local cop *if* he can show he is squeaky clean.