Crimes at Cyber Headlines

Monday, September 27, 2010

Saudi Arabia's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, known as the Haia, is aiming to set up a unit to combat cyber crimes.

 By ITP.net Staff Writer
According to Arab News, the Haia will establish a cyber crime unit at its Riyadh headquarters, which will initially focus on the issue of women being blackmailed online.

Saudi has recently seen an increasing number of reports of men attempting to blackmail women by threatening to post their photographs online. Use of mobile phone cameras and MMS has increased the circulation of photographs of women's faces, which under the Kingdom's strict traditions and customs, should not be revealed to non-relatives.

The General Presidency of the Commission will set up a temporary office in Riyadh. The group will also monitor illicit websites in the Kingdom, and will co-operate with other authorities to close such sites, the report said.

Cyber crime lab goes online in Mass

As new technology changes the way we live, crime fighters are also taking steps to keep pace with the bad guys.

Today, Massachusetts is showing off a new lab. As NECN's Brad Puffer tells us, it's helping law enforcement follow high tech clues to solve crimes.

Dave Papargiris is head of the Cyber Crimes division at the Masschusett's Attorney General's office.

He's showing off a new lab designed to handle the increasing number of cases involving digital evidence.

“There's a lot of equipment for doing mobile phone, new phones are coming out monthly, we need to have enough tools to work with every phone that is coming out.” Papargiris says they work to assist District Attroney's across the state and offer free trainings to local police departments. All in an effort to respond more quickly.

“If we got a report of a missing child we could go right into that persons bedroom take their computer hard drive out start looking at who their were talking to who they were communicating with.” The Attorney General's office has gone from processing around 50 cases last year to more than 100 this year and they expect that number will only go up.

Martha Coakley: “Everything from cell phones to iPhones to Blackberry's to mobile computers and anything that stores information in a digital way.” Attorney General Martha Coakley says the new lab goes online Wednesday morning at a cost of almost 800-thousand dollars. Funding she says comes from grants, their own budget and the state.

“It's a major investment but in terms of what we need to do for solving crime and providing deterrence it is well worth it.” Investigators say they handle the evidence as carefully as DNA - checking evidence in and providing a static free environment to prevent any damaging shock The hope is to solve crimes faster but with strong evidence that will also convince a jury at trial.
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