DOJ Cyber Experts Train Prosecutors in Singapore, Bangkok

Cyber experts from the Department of Justice recently hosted training programs for prosecutors in Singapore and Bangkok, focusing on important forensics and evidence issues particular to intellectual property (IP) cases.  This partnership follows a cyber forensics training workshop for U.S. prosecutors held in Washington, DC with partners in the IP Crimes Enforcement Network (IPCEN).

IPCEN, established in 2007, has two main goals: to promote domestic sharing of information and the most effective strategies to prosecute domestic piracy and counterfeiting crimes; and to strengthen international cooperation among law enforcement to abet coordinated, multinational prosecutions of the most serious offenders.

Over 100 investigators and prosecutors attended the Singapore program in March, while about 130 Thai prosecutors and investigators were present at the first day of the two-day Bangkok program, and 150 Thai judges attended the second day.

Singapore has recently stepped up its cyber education efforts, opening a “Virtual Cyber Security Park” for elementary school-aged children along with announcing several other measures today as part of the Infocomm Security Masterplan 2 (MP2).  MP2 began in 2008 and is Singapore’s 5 year plan to improve cyber defense and resiliency. Singapore’s government also announced plans to audit Internet service providers (ISPs) to ensure that baseline security standards are implemented.  Also, ISPs will be required to share the information with other ISPs.  Singapore plans to employ business analytics software to spot warning signs of impending cyber attacks.

Trial lawyer John Zacharia from the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinator for Asia Christopher Sonderby gave advice and information on how to obtain and use digital evidence in intellectual property litigation, and director of the Cyber Crime Laboratory, Ovie Carroll, discussed a wide range of forensic issues like imaging, methodology and other issues related to evidence identification and analysis.

On Feb. 12, 2010, the Attorney General announced a new DOJ Task Force on Intellectual Property as part of a Department-wide initiative to confront the growing number of domestic and international intellectual property (IP) crimes.

Posted by Jack Mann on Monday, March 22nd, 2010. Filed under Cybersecurity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry