Secret Service Agents Go Online To Fight Electronic Crime
Among most of us, the U.S. Secret Service is closely associated with the physical protection of the President and other top government officials. Beyond that, however, the Secret Service has long been fighting financial crimes, and today, their activities extend further into cyberspace, according to A.T. Smith, deputy assistant director of investigations for the federal agency.
In fact, the Secret Service was first formed specifically to provide a form of financial protection, Smith pointed out during the 19th Annual Information Security Conference at the United Nations in New York City earlier this year. The event was sponsored by the United Nations Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID) and AIT Global Inc.
The Secret Service was founded in 1865 as a branch of the U.S. Treasury Department with an original mission to stop the counterfeiting of U.S. currency, a huge problem following the Civil War era. The function of protecting the President did not appear on the agency’s list of duties until after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.
Later came the establishment of the agency’s Financial Crimes Division, which investigates crimes associated with financial institutions. These include computer and telecommunications crimes along with other types of fraud related to banks, credit and debit cards, identification, electronic funds transfer (EFT) and government and commercial securities.
As one example of the Financial Crimes Division’s accomplishments, Smith cited Operation Rolling Stone, which resulted in last year’s arrests of 21 suspects throughout the United States, on charges related to credit card fraud and debit card and personal ID number theft. One suspect, Virginia Tech student Benjamin W. Pinkston, stood accused of a variety of criminal infractions involving online identity theft, including conspiracy and the illegal possession of ID documents.
Although the Secret Service is now part of the U.S. Homeland Security Department (DHS), its work in fending off counterfeiters and potential assassins continues unabated. In July, following Smith’s talk at the U.N., the Secret Service began to warn merchants to beware of “high quality” counterfeit $100 bills allegedly being distributed by two street gangs — the Crips and the Bloods — in Hawaii.
“[But] cybercrimes are [now] the biggest obstacle,” Smith told conference attendees. According to the deputy director, the past two decades have seen increasing encroachment of ID theft and other monetary scams on the Internet, where criminals find it easier to hide. Many of the perpetrators belong to organized crime rings, and many of them are based overseas, according to Smith. “They use [proxy servers] to conceal their identities,” he says.
In the interest of tracking down online thugs, the Secret Service has set up the Electronic Crimes Special Agent Program (ESCAP), which trains agents to conduct examinations of computers used in criminal exploits. The Secret Service now offers special agent training in electronic crime investigation at three levels of expertise: basic electronics investigator, network intrusion investigator and forensic examiner. The agency has also added more undercover agents who specialize in electronic crime, along with officers based in other countries. To help nab online interlopers lurking overseas, the agency collaborates closely with a number of foreign police organizations, including Interpol and Europol.
On the home front, the Secret Service has set up a nationwide network of Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTF), meant to bring together federal, state and local law enforcement with prosecutors, private industry and academia to battle computer crime. The agency is currently engaged in other investigations similar to Operation Rolling Stone, Smith says.