Law Enforcement is Seduced by Big Cybercrime Cases

Some important aspects are changing in law enforcement when it comes to cybercrime. Let's take a look at the social aspects within the law enforcement community, the criminal evolution of cybercrime, and the resulting changes in behaviors that are driving fundamental improvements to cybercrime investigations around the globe. Now, just a few years ago, Cybercrime, well, it had a big stigma of really just being geeks committing, you know, small crimes. For many of the seasoned officers, chasing fraudulent credit card purchases or digital miscreants defacing websites seemed no better than the dreaded traffic duty assignments. Digital and cryptocurrency crime was largely misunderstood very much underestimated and for the most part deprioritized. For those with a badge, sitting down at a computer seemed like a lesser job, even a demotion. Definitely not real work where big criminals were found or pursued. Not many wanted to be assigned to such slow and technically confusing cases. Sexy cases where people were caught with bags of cash, truckloads of stolen merchandise, or thousands of dollars worth of drugs was far cooler. Understandably, it seemed more real and tangible with work being done in the actual field rather than behind a keyboard. Veterans often shrugged off such computer crime cases, relegating them to, well, the junior investigators. Times and cybercrime have changed. But before I dive into that, a little background you need to know about law enforcement types. Law enforcement investigators and criminal prosecutors, well, they're a competitive bunch. They all want a career case, one to brag about, get promoted for, something to build a personal reputation or brand within their peer groups. And it's only human that that competitive nature, it's a good thing because it really does push people to work harder. And it was all about high-profile cases. It still is. You know, crimes against people have a special place, but crimes against property are also prestigious if they're big enough. And that's really the key. And, you know, back in the day, you know, a bank robber might commit a a series of robberies totaling tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, catching a bank robber was legendary. That's something that, you know, police officers would dream of doing, right? With bags of cash recovered. I mean, that earned you bragging rights. That was something. Now, given how cybercrime has far eclipsed most other types of property crime, And in comparison, right, tens of thousands of dollars seems almost comical. Today's cybercriminals, criminals often score exponentially larger gains, some in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars because of a crime. And in some cases, law enforcement can even seize that type of, of assets. And that, again, that's real bragging rights. Now, every once in a while, law enforcement can stop criminal operations that are raking in even billions of dollars from victims spanning all across the world. And again, that is fundamentally different than local agencies stopping one thing, or even just a single national agency stopping organized crime within their borders. Right? This is an entirely different scale. And asset seizures can be equally impressive now because of the same reason. Some notable examples from 2020 are the PlusToken, um, and the missing crypto, uh, from the Silk Road underground criminal marketplace. Now, the Chinese police, uh, in 2020 actually arrested a little over 100 people. I think it was 108 people involved in the PlusToken cryptocurrency investment scam., and they were able to seize cryptocurrency assets that are now worth over $6 billion. Yes, that's with a B, $6 billion. Now think about that if you're a law enforcement agency, right? Somebody says, hey, yeah, I just bagged a bad guy and he had $20,000 on him. Oh, that's, that's, isn't that cute, right? Where some of these agencies in the billions of dollars. Also in 2020, the US Justice Department seized the last bit of crypto that was part of an underground marketplace, an illegal marketplace on the dark web called Silk Road. And that last little bit of crypto is now almost worth $2 billion. And this is actually the second batch. They sold the first batch open to auction. They'll probably do the same and they'll get that money into the agencies and be able to split it up. I mean, that's a huge windfall, right? Billions of dollars. So, I mean, often digital criminals opt to deal in cryptocurrency for their transactions, so that's really no surprise. But that has not protected them from seizures by authorities, right? And overall, cybercrime is really big. Many don't realize that the value of digital crimes has exceeded the global illegal drug industry. In fact, it was several years ago that it exceeded that. Cybercrime right now, the best estimates are saying cybercrime will cost the world about $6 trillion next year in 2021. Okay, let, let me put that in perspective, right? $6 trillion in 2021, and that's going to grow to $10 trillion, over $10 trillion by 2025. In comparison, The entire United States GDP is $21 trillion. Our gross domestic product is $21 trillion. Globally, it's just over $80 trillion. So when we talk about $6 trillion in cybercrime, right, that is a big chunk, right? Far more than what most of these agencies are dealing with, with the normal traditional types of crime. And growth in cybercrime is happening everywhere. Ransomware is a great example, right? Ransomware right now is about a $20 billion crime, a new victim every 5 seconds. And ransomware services are available to wannabe criminals, new people coming in the industry with virtually no skills, no technology, no capability. And they're being brought in under what's called ransomware as a service. And decent kits for this start at $50. Some of them are free. But basically what it allows is it allows somebody with very little technical skills to be able to take this infrastructure and share out malicious links in emails or on web pages or on chat boards or whatnot. And the service, right, which is run by technically savvy organized criminals, they do all the work behind the scenes. They will, when, you know, a potential victim clicks on that link, right? They will push the malware down. They will encrypt the victim's files. They will communicate with a ransom note. They will handle the processing of the cryptocurrency back to them. And then they will give a piece of that to that person who started that chain, who forwarded off the link, who got those customers identified and on the hook, right? So it becomes a profit-sharing model, and it can be done, started off, right, um, by somebody that has no technical skills. And we're seeing people just with smartphones, not even PCs or servers or tablets, but simply smartphones get involved like this. So they become that front end of the scam, and it only takes something like a smartphone phone. Map that against the next billion people that are coming onto the internet, many of them from regions of the world that, um, are suffering economically, and people are only making $20 a day or even $10 a day. Being involved in something like this could be life-changing, right? They could earn 5, 10, 15 times as much per day to keep food on the table. So we've got a lot more criminals that are going to be able to come on board. It's that type of growth and innovation that's driving cybercrime. So we have to understand that it is a new world, right? And especially with digital technology, this type of decentralized crime models where everyone can remain anonymous, they can be paid digitally, they can communicate securely, and they never have to meet each other. Unfortunately, this type of crime is also low risk, and I'm not advocating to do it. Please don't. We don't want anybody to add to this scourge and problem. But the simple fact is that cyber criminals are still running rampant, and the likelihood of them being detected and prosecuted by law enforcement is really low. I mean, really low. According to the World Economic Forum, the 2020 Risk Report, it's less than 0.05 of a percent. So the risk is low, the potential for gain is high. That's why cybercrime is exploding around the globe. It is computers, not handguns or weapons. That are now the preferred tools of organized thieves, fraudsters, and criminals. But the news is not all bad. Behavioral changes in law enforcement have become a catalyst for better capabilities to investigate and prosecute cybercriminals. So think of it this way, right? The new recruits fresh from the academies come with inherent knowledge and comfort of digital systems and online services far exceeding that of the old veterans. And they're willing to dive into these cyber crimes, right? It's very interesting. It's, it's, it's part of their life and how they were brought up and dealing with that digital ecosystem and the sheer size, the complexity, the impacts of digital crimes, which far exceed that of the old types of cases. That brings prestige. So investigating cybercrime, especially that involving cryptocurrency, is now becoming sexy, right? It's the new wave. The old guard used to be nervous when it came to digital currencies, something which is very foreign to them. But the latest generation of officers better understand how to navigate innovative technologies to their advantage. New tools, processes, training, and capabilities make it the place for hungry, competitive, and ambitious investigators that want to climb the ranks. The result can be seen in the, in the growing number of arrests and the significant seizures of digital assets, and in some cases valued in the billions of dollars. These are cases that dwarf anything that their predecessors accomplished in previous property crimes. And the other thing to look at is the speed in which now cases can be investigated. It's picking up. They're getting better. It's moving faster. That skill set is bringing more efficiency to be, uh, able to investigate these types of crimes. So That brings new focus, more competitiveness, tighter continuous improvement cycles, more interdepartment communication and collaboration, and better overall results. This is even driving more cooperation across borders as well, as every law enforcement agency really wants a piece of this pie. That behavioral and inner social dynamic within law enforcement is driving departments to foster higher-level capabilities to investigate digital crimes for the benefit of all law-abiding citizens across the digital domain, not even just in their jurisdiction or in their country. It's helping everybody, and their continued advancement will put necessary pressure on cybercrime. And we all benefit when the trust in digital technology is preserved. So, welcome to the new era of law enforcement. New tools, new crimes, same mission: to protect and to serve.