Enforcers seek funding to combat computer crime

With threats from computer viruses and computer theft accelerating, law enforcement officials told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that they need more funding to combat computer crimes and expressed support for an Internet security bill (S. 2448) that would toughen current enforcement laws on computer crime.

Michael Vatis, director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, and James Robinson, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division, both expressed support for the bill's intentions but had some concerns with it.

Vatis and Robinson said S. 2448 would not sufficiently take into account changing technology in the telecommunications field and could make quick searches in computer crime cases more challenging. Specifically, Robinson said the existing language in the bill related to the use of pen registers and "trap and trace" devices used in investigating computer crimes is "obsolete." Pen registers collect numbers dialed on outgoing phone calls. Trap and trade devices collect incoming calls, but they don't help law enforcement seeking to monitor Internet traffic. Robinson said he believes the bill should be clarified to ensure that Internet traffic could be traced as well.

Robinson also criticized the bill's call to cooperate, detect and investigate international computer crime, saying its language was too weak to significantly promote international cooperation. He urged the provision be removed from the bill.

Additionally, Robinson took issue with a provision in the bill that aims to prevent the fraudulent collection and dissemination of consumers' personal information by requiring companies give notice of collection and dissemination of information to online users.

Robinson said the administration believes that industry self-regulation on the collection of personal data ought to be given a chance and if such legislation were necessary, that it should "recognize and provide incentives for self-regulation, such as by granting participants in effective self-regulatory programs a 'safe harbor' from regulation."

Jim Dempsey, senior staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said he is concerned that S. 2448 would result in the expansion of government surveillance of computer activity and that citizens could be surrendering some of their privacy.

"Internet security is not a problem primarily within the control of the federal government," he said. "Particularly, it is not a problem to be solved through the criminal justice system."

S. 2448 was introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.