Ashcroft announces new computer crime units

Citing the growing threat of crime on the Internet, Attorney General John Ashcroft on Friday announced the formation of 10 specialized prosecutorial units designed to fight computer crime and intellectual property cases and he urged businesses to cooperate fully with law enforcement. Dubbed the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) units, the teams will be based in eight major cities and will boost the number of prosecutors devoted to computer crimes from 22 to 48. "The growing frequency, sophistication and cost of computer crime means that law enforcement must constantly rededicate itself to the vital mission of keeping cyberspace safe for all Americans," Ashcroft said in a written copy of his remarks. "The formation of these 10 CHIP units is an important step in improving our nation's response to the many and varied challenges of the digital age." He also said that the CHIP units would work closely with the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Justice Department and with prosecutors outside the cities in which the units are located. The cities are San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Seattle, Alexandria, Va., and New York, where offices will be located in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The teams are based on a model attempting to coordinate law enforcement officials from the FBI and the Treasury Department's Customs Service pioneered in July 1999 by FBI director-designate Robert Mueller, currently the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, which includes both San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The original unit was based in San Jose. Ashcroft said that the Northern California CHIP team successfully prosecuted a cyber criminal who hacked into U.S. government computer systems including NASA, the Energy Department, the Transportation Department, and seven Air Force bases. He is serving a sentence of 18 months, he said. The office also prosecuted a large-scale conspiracy of the robbery and shipments of computer components. "To do this job and to do it right, however, we need the help of the high-tech community," Ashcroft said. "Our experience tells us that when a bank is robbed, bank officials call the police. But when valuable commercial information is stolen form high tech companies, victims are often reluctant to refer their cases to law enforcement. They fear customer mistrust and competitive disadvantage. "Those fears, while understandable, are ultimately self-defeating for the high tech community. The failure to reach out to law enforcement when cyber crime strikes can leave businesses vulnerable to additional victimization," he said.