Plan to fight organized crime recognizes growing cyber threats

Obama administration officials on Monday unrolled a plan to fight global organized crime that says computer crime is a much greater threat today, because online networks undergird nearly every illicit network.

During a 40-minute White House event to announce the strategy, officials did not mention the words "Internet," "computer" or "cyber," but the 38-page written plan highlights the Web's role in perpetuating and thwarting transnational organized crime.

For instance, syndicates orchestrating intellectual property theft -- which garnered a lot of time during Monday's event -- include enterprises that steal proprietary items "through intrusions into corporate and proprietary computer networks," the document noted.

Online fraud committed by Central European cybercrime networks is estimated to have robbed Americans of about $1 billion during a one-year period, the strategy said.

"Virtually every transnational criminal organization and its enterprises are connected and enabled by information systems technologies, making cybercrime a substantially more important concern," the document stated. "Through cybercrime, transnational criminal organizations pose a significant threat to financial and trust systems -- banking, stock markets, e-currency, and value and credit card services -- on which the world economy depends."

But the United States is short on help to track the digital money trail that crooks leave behind with their online transactions, computer addresses and wireless devices. "Often the proper investigation of this evidence trail requires highly trained personnel," the plan stated. "Crimes can occur more quickly, but investigations proceed more slowly due to the critical shortage of investigators with the knowledge and expertise to analyze ever increasing amounts of potential digital evidence."

To bolster domestic crime fighting forces, the United States wants to coordinate with foreign partners on executing better computer forensics analysis, as well as recovering digital evidence for prosecutions, the paper stated.

In a rare cyber reference, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the point that, in 2010, the Secret Service, home to 31 electronic crimes task forces, arrested more than 1,000 suspects for fraud-related violations that generated losses amounting to more than $500 million.

The White House strategy tackles drug trafficking, human smuggling and terrorist financing, among other areas of global conspiracy, and is based on a yearlong review that ended in January 2010. It is the first such organized crime study in 15 years.

The plan outlines several major undertakings, including a series of legislative proposals to expand the federal government's power to investigate and prosecute top crime families. White House officials did not respond to questions about whether the proposals, which Attorney General Eric Holder said will expand racketeering laws to cover new kinds of crime, would address computer offenses.

In addition, the agenda includes a new executive order that slaps economic sanctions on syndicates and prohibits Americans from doing business with them. The plan also contains a presidential proclamation that bars individuals covered by the executive order from entering the United States. And it initiates a rewards program to elicit tips that could lead to the arrest of leaders who pose the greatest threats to national security.

Through the executive order, Obama on Monday imposed sanctions on The Brothers' Circle, a Eurasian group of criminal enterprises mainly located in the former Soviet Union that is growing; Camorra, the largest Italian organized crime group; Yakuza, a major Japanese network that primarily engages in drug trafficking; and Los Zetas, a brutal organization largely based in Mexico that is responsible for killing U.S. customs agents and carrying out mass murders.