Cyber Crime
The first topic in our week 2 session was Cyber Crime. I am not a big fan of the phrase cyber, but that's a bit of a personal issue 
If you remember, the FBI has 10 major priorities. If you need a refresher, check out the Week 1 - Part 1 post.
Cyber crime is the number three priority for the FBI. The Cyber Crime Division has its own set of priorities. They involve detecting, preventing and reacting to:
- Counter-terrorism intrusions
- Counter-intelligence intrusions
- Criminal intrusions
- Chile exploitation involving computers
- Intellectual property theft involving computers
- Internet-based fraud
The division currently is engaged in four initiatives.
- Computer Intrusions
- Innocent Images: Online Child Pornography Program
- Anti-Piracy/Intellectual Property Rights
- InfraGard: FBI/Private Sector Partnership
One of facts I found very interesting is that Cyber Crime Task Force have local law enforcement representatives sitting along side federal agents. They receive the same clearances and have access to the same resources. This makes pursuit of the bad guys that much easier.
Another good tidbit of information to be aware of is that there is a place where you can report suspected malicious activity. It is called that Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The next topic was Internet Safety.
Internet Safety
This section dealt with providing education to people, mainly children, about internet safety. The presenter was Karen Gale, an FBI Victim Assistance Specialist. I have seen Karen speak before and will point you to a previous post for details about that program.
In addition to the Netsmartz program, there is the Parent's Guide to Internet Safety and Safe Online Surfing programs.
Our final topic for the evening was White Collar Crime.
White Collar Crime
Frankly, I couldn't take notes fast enough on this topic. There was a huge amount of information shared. The following are the areas of fraud the FBI is involved in:
- Corporate Fraud
- Health Care Fraud
- Mortgage Fraud
- Securities & Commodities Fraud
- Insurance Fraud | Consumer Information
- Mass Marketing Fraud
- Asset Forfeiture/Money Laundering
- Bankruptcy Fraud
- Hedge Fund Fraud
Of these, it appeared that Mortgage and Health Care fraud are the most prevalent right now.
Next
The next session will cover Counter-intelligence/Espionage and International/Domestic Terrorism.
-Kevin
Hey Kev!
How did you manage to get into the program? Santarchangelo had mentioned it to me about a year ago, and that he would nominate me. I know he's been busy, so he probably forgot about it. But it's really great to read about your experience with it.
-BC
...and that wasn't a knock on Santa. I'd honestly forgotten about it, too, until I saw your recent posts.
Hey Brian,
First: Didn't take it as a Santa bashing
I was nominated by a friend of mine in Omaha. The Omaha division, which covers Nebraska and Iowa has at most two classes per year and only 20 participants per class. I suspect this is the same for other divisions. The only people who can nominate are FBI employees and Citizens' Academy alumni.
-Kevin
[...] introduction to the Cyber investigative focus of the FBI. You can read more about that in this post from my FBI Citizen's Academy series (which I need to finish.) They also spoke about some specific [...]