Posted: February 14th, 2023

HSM438 Introduction to Cyber Crime

St. Louis Cyber Task Force

HSM438 Introduction to Cyber Crime

Introduction
With the advent of information technology, cyber crime is now a painful reality in the society. Many cases of this type of crime abound in the society. The extent to which cyber crime can go has be exemplified by hacking of our government’s websites to divulge classified cable information which has ignited diplomatic rows. Cyber crime has also been reinstated by use of cyber space by criminals to enhance cyber terrorism. The St. Louis County has not been spared by cyber crime; cases of extortion and cyber theft abound in the county’s society. Most of these cases are reported by users of social platforms such as twitter Facebook. Through phony accounts, criminals are able to dupe unsuspecting users of these sites to divulge information which they used to steal money and other valuable from them. The criminals also have technologies of breaking into accounts of users of the networks who use weak passwords and make away with paramount information which they use to propagate their criminal activities. The pervasiveness of cyber crime in the St. Louis County calls for the enforcement of a taskforce to launch countermeasures for cybercrime. An effective taskforce will be of high significance in alleviating the incidence of Cyber crime in the County jurisdiction.
Executive Summary
The future is now and involves computers and technology. With this continued growth in the technology field cyber crime is an unavoidable outcome. As we move toward a digital economy with technological requirements we need to be able to provide a sense of security to the everyday users to include the government, business and most importantly the people. This is why I have put together this information so that we may protect the county of St. Louis with a cyber crime task force worthy of stopping these criminals. In St. Louis County we have a wide variety of cyber crime activities but this does not just affect us locally. As with all areas of cyber crime there are far reaching possibilities on a nation or worldly level. Focusing on stopping these local crimes will in turn affect the farther reaching tentacles of cyber crime everywhere.
Cyber Crime Threats in St. Luis County
From what we have found, the greatest cyber crime threats to St. Louis County are illegal gambling, fraud, network attacks, identity theft and Cyber bullying. The illegal gambling crime involves involvement of minors in luck games. The federal law has criminalized involvement of people under the age of twenty one years in gambling. Experienced and unscrupulous gamblers take advantage of the inexperienced and naïve underage gamblers to cunningly extort money from them; this is against the federal code. The second eminent cyber crime threat in the county is cyber fraud; this is a type of crime whereby criminals con unsuspecting internet users through misinterpretation of material facts. For example cases bound in the county whereby criminals misrepresent themselves as prospective employers; they require applicants to pay a certain charge to accompany the respective employment positions they purport to have. People in the county have also been robbed valuables by criminals using fake social networking accounts. They dupe unsuspecting victims to meet them especially in secluded places pretending to be good people, only for the unsuspecting victims to find that it’s a crime syndicate which robes them their valuables. The other type of cyber crime common in the St. Louis County is Network attacks. The attackers mostly target organizations whereby they may hack into databases and phish for certain codes, damage data bases or expose confidential information about them organizations. The other pervasive cyber crime in the county is identity theft whereby criminals break into victims financial accounts and make off with money. This especially happens to people who use weak passwords such as birthdays or children names. The last crime experienced in the county is cyber bullying, this occurs in online gaming where players get abused and emotionally hurt by unfaithful opponents. The great extent of cyber crime in the county indicates just how much a counter attack task force is required to combat these crimes, (Kumar & Mittal, 2012).
The Three Cyber Crimes that will be Top Priorities for the Task Force
The three types of cyber crimes that the taskforce will prioritize will include network attacks, cyber fraud and identity theft. This is because these have been the most pervasive cyber crimes in the county. Network attacks have been reported in several organizations in the county; the organizations report cases whereby their online accounts or websites have been tampered with. This is usually propagated by phishing parties whose aim is to get confidential information through which they could steal from the organization. For example, they may get the organization’s credit cards passwords or their ATM passwords which they use to steal money from the organizations’ bank accounts. The criminals may also expose classified and confidential information about the organizations; they may also introduce malicious codes that damage the organizations’ databases, (Kumar & Mittal, 2012).
Cyber fraud is also an aggravating type of cyber crime that will be prioritized; unsuspecting people have in the county have been conned by criminals who misinterpret themselves. This especially occurs in social networking platforms; naïve users of the social media are often duped by these criminals and robbed off their valuables. For example, the identity thieves may pose as acting for certain organizations, they dupe the victims to enter into transactions with them on the behalf of the organizations only to realize later that they have been conned. Identity thieves also misrepresent their identities in social media; they use fake accounts in social platforms such as Tweeter and Facebook. Posing as good people they dupe victims to meet them only to find out that the persons purporting to be good people are a crime syndicate which may abduct them or make off with their valuables.
The third cyber crime that will be prioritized by the task force is identity theft. This type of crime that has been regularly reported in the county, involve criminals breaking into online financial accounts of victims and stealing money, passwords and sensitive information. They usually hack the accounts of the victims to get a pathway into the accounts. This usually happens to persons who use weak passwords for their accounts, such as their birthdays or their children’s names. However, with milestones in technology being achieved, the attackers have developed more sophisticated methods of identity theft; for example, today the attackers can feed a malicious code into the victims accounts and excavate for passwords and other paramount information even when the victims are using strong passwords, (Kumar & Mittal, 2012).
Cyber Crime Task Force Structure
The taskforce will take the functional organization structure; in which the taskforce will be divided into sections with distinct mandates. The taskforce will three major departments which will include; The IT team, the forensics teams, and the on ground monitoring teams. The forensics team will be vested with the responsibility of investigating and analyzing cases of cyber crime and their origins; the IT team will be bestowed with the mandate of researching and coming up with up to date means of controlling cyber crimes. The on ground monitoring team will have the mandate of monitoring cyber space events to track cases of cyber crimes. This will mostly involve scouring the social media for hacking cases and reading newspapers and newsletter to track cases of cyber crimes. The three departments will be under the umbrella of the top management to which they will report to (Bossler & Holt, 2012).
Personnel and skills the taskforce will need to investigate the top three cyber threats
For the taskforce to accomplish its mission of investigating and combating the above three pervasive cyber crimes, it will inevitable require the relevant personnel and skill. The necessary personnel will include information technology savvy individuals who can comprehend the dynamics of cyber crimes. The personnel will also include an investigative team with experience in investigative work. The personnel will also comprise a legal team with the knowledge of what the law has to say regarding different kinds of cyber crimes. Moreover, it will be imperative for all the personnel to possess apt skills in information technology as it will be difficult to do this type of work for a computer illiterate person. Teamwork skills will also be necessary for the taskforce because the personnel will have to work in conjunction and coordination with one another to accomplish the taskforce mission (Valentine, Hay, Beaver & Blomberg, 2013).
Federal Agencies in the Area should the Task Force Develop Relationships with in order to be Effective
The taskforce will need to establish links with intelligence and security agencies with bases in the St. Louis County locality. These will include: the Federal Bureau of Investigation branch in the county, the central Intelligence agency office in the county and the National security agency branch in the area. Establishing links with these agencies will make the investigative work of the team more effective. Moreover, the coordination with the agencies will keep the taskforce up to date with the federal penalties and control mechanisms for cyber crimes; this will keep the taskforce’s strategy for combating cyber crime refined all the way through (Bossler & Holt 2012).

Cyber Crime Task Force Equipment
To be effective, the taskforce will require cutting edge technology equipment and gadgets for its work. The equipment will include both hardware and software. The software will include sophisticated computers that can accomplish multiple tasks at high speeds, cryptographs for encrypting information to make it hard for criminals to access, biometric machines, computer BIOs and network monitoring tools. The software detail will include: firewalls and antivirus which will be used to thwart cyber crime endeavors. These equipment will enable the taskforce detect and thwart cyber crimes. It will also enable them to track cyber criminals and bring them to the book (Valentine, Hay, Beaver & Blomberg, 2013).
Paramount Aspects of a Cyber Crime Lab Capable of Performing Cyber Forensics
To effectively perform cyber forensics, a cyber crime lab must first of all have the necessary personnel. It must have staff that have know-how in information technology and also have experience in cases of cyber crimes. Secondly, the lab must be in full possession of the relevant equipments used in carrying out cyber forensics. For example, the lab must be equipped with GPS trackers to locate cyber criminals. The lab must also be equipped with cryptograph and decryption machines that can be used to interpret malicious codes used by cyber criminals. The lab must also be equipped with network monitoring tools that can be used to identify intrusions or suspicious traffic. The bottom line is that the lab must be vast with IT savvy personnel and cyber forensics equipment in order to enable it to deliver on its mandate (Maimon, Kamerdze, Cukier & Sobesto 2013).
Cyber Crime Legislation
In order to deal thoroughly with the cyber crime menace, stringent legislation must be put in place, this will enable pursuing and apprehension of cyber criminals; it is the only way to make the mandate of the taskforce effective and operational. The various acts that should be enforced and operationalized in the count include: legislation on computer abuse and fraud which passes the penalty for cyber fraud, there should also be legislation on identity theft and aggravated identity theft laying down the consequences of the crime. Thirdly, there should be legislation on internet spyware prevention and resultant punishment for breaking the law. Lastly there should be legislation on access device fraud; this legislation should pass the punishment for owner of a device found to have been used to propagate cyber crime. These legislations will enable the taskforce to enforce its mandate such that its work is not only investigative but also enforceable (Barker, 2012).
The laws should be passed in the St. Louis county assembly because they will only be enforceable in the county’s jurisdiction. The passage of the legislation in the county’s top arm of administration will give the laws the required effectiveness. People will be able to k now the implications of their behavior before they engage in cyber crime activities. The legislation will be able to thwart some cyber crimes by the fear of reprimands and penalties that ensue once one is caught carrying out the criminal activity; this will in turn make the work of the task force more effective.
Conclusion
In conclusion, cyber crime is a reality in the St. Louis County; this calls for enforcement of counter measures to alleviate the ramifications of this ill. One inevitable countermeasure is the constituting a cyber crime mitigation taskforce manadate4d to investigate and control cases of cyber crime and to apprehend cyber criminals to bring them to the book. This will be a key step in curtailing the rampant incidence of cyber crime cases in the county. For the taskforce to be effective, it must comprise personnel and staff with knowledge and skills in information technology. It must also have a forensics lab complete with the relevant equipment to investigate cyber crime. In addition to the above measures, to make the taskforce more effective, it must be affiliated security agencies in the county; this will make the force more effectual in enforcement of its mandate. Members of the force should also be familiar with the county to make it easier for them to track and apprehend cyber criminals.

References
Kumar, P., & Mittal, S. (2012). The Perpetration and Prevention of Cyber Crime: An Analysis of Cyber Terrorism in the US. International Journal of Technoethics (IJT), 3(1), 43-52.
Maimon, D., Kamerdze, A., Cukier, M., & Sobesto, B. (2013). Daily Trends and Origin of Computer-Focused Crimes Against Large Computer Network An Application of the Routine-Activities and Lifestyle Perspective. British Journal of Criminology, 53(2), 319- 343.
Barker, K. (2012). Cyber Criminals on Trial, by Russell G Smith, Peter Grabosky and Gregor Urbas. International Journal of Law and Information Technology, 20(3), 242-245.
Valentine, C. L., Hay, C., Beaver, K. M., & Blomberg, T. G. (2013). Through a computational lens: using dual computer-criminology programs to advance the study of criminology and criminal justice practice. Security Informatics, 2(1), 1-7.
Bossler, A. M., & Holt, T. J. (2012). Patrol officers’ perceived role in responding to cybercrime. Policing: an international journal of police strategies & management, 35(1), 165-181.