At 6:52 PM +0100 on 2/9/07, Roberto Gaetano wrote to a bunch of us, saying:
However, I have one question, or rather one curiosity: why is it that "LEA rely on the unique and highly-skilled abilities of amateur investigators *heavily* in their efforts"?
Hi Robert, Frankly, there is a shocking lack of computer, net and technical expertise among the world's police forces. Or perhaps that isn't shocking. The ramp-up of crime online has been rapid, cops less so, plus cops still like to deal with physical crimes, understandably. If you want a little anecdote, last year I sat in a room with 100 investigators, and taught them how to DISPLAY the headers of an email. Never mind reading them. Spam is a highly technical and ever-evolving set of technologies and there are few if any LEAs with the technical expertise at the moment to deal, whereas we 'amateurs' (and that would include a lot of people better deemed professional spamfighters) track the stuff daily. Another thing that happens a lot is that cops get trained on the job, then get hired by private industry. Canada's RCMP computer forensics lab was virtually cleaned out when the lead guy was hired by KPMG, and then hired all his former co-workers. SLAMSPAM is one example of amateur, professional and LEAs trying to do something. CAUCE and The Spamhaus Project being members of the London Action Plan and Anti Spyware Coalition would be another. Me working with The Competition Bureau of Canada to assist in their investigations is yet another. Me working on coordinating discrete groups of experts and LEAs to hold training days is another. -- == Neil Schwartzman Chair, Board of Directors CAUCE Canada: The Canadian Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email Canada: +1 (514) 485-9713 US: +1 (303) 800 6345 UK: 020 8144 6345 Skype: spamfighter666 Fax: +1 (419) 793-0430 [AIM / MSN / Yahoo!]: CAUCECanada [Web]: http://cauce.ca See http://stopspamhere.ca for ways to prevent spam from hitting your inbox.