While technological advances in the past few years have transformed people’s lives, they also have enabled criminals, who employ high-tech devices to evade detection and capture.
In the past, it was possible for authorities to surveil and capture criminals involved in the illegal drugs trade, fraud, firearms trade and organized crime, all of which seriously endanger public security.
However, with the ubiquity of mobile networks, such criminals can now exploit the increased security built into communications software to keep their information away from the prying eyes of the authorities.
The sexual exploitation of minors is a serious global challenge. Criminals store illegal video content on cloud servers and distribute them using telecommunications software, rapidly expanding the scope of the danger.
For example, the suspects in the “nth room” case in South Korea used telecommunications software to distribute sexually exploitative video content in Internet chat rooms.
In addition, many members of drugs labs no longer communicate with each other using mobile phones and many of the labs are in remote areas or mountains — places that are difficult for the authorities to find using traditional monitoring technologies and ones that expose law enforcement personnel to considerable danger when they do.
It is possible for law enforcement to use high-tech devices to locate the criminals and find out where illegal goods are stored.
These obstacles to law enforcement are by no means unique to Taiwan.
In October last year, FBI Director Christopher Wray, speaking at a US Department of Justice summit on the need for lawful access, said that the inability to obtain access to data on telecommunications devices is now the most serious challenge in anti-terrorism and criminal investigation efforts.
When it comes to access to data and content, advanced countries, such as France, Germany, Spain and the UK, have authorized law enforcement agencies device-end communications surveillance, including the “State Trojan” legislation in Germany and the UK’s “equipment interference.”
A joint Europol-Eurojust news release on July 2 detailed how communications interceptions and surveillance enabled judicial authorities in France and the Netherlands, in addition to Europol and Eurojust, to intercept criminal activity being perpetrated by multinational drugs and weapons smuggling syndicates.
The operation brought in more than 10 tonnes of cocaine, 70kg of heroin, 12 tonnes of cannabis, 1.5 tonnes of amphetamines and a hoard of illegal firearms.
Technology should be used to find solutions to problems it causes. GPS tracking and remote-monitoring technologies allow law enforcement personnel to keep tabs on where criminals are, while device-end surveillance technologies provide access to encrypted data.
Meanwhile, digital data forensic acquisition and security technologies, due to the nature of the Internet and digital devices, allow law enforcement personnel to broaden the scope of the data they can acquire to the areas of the cloud being used by criminals.
The goal of technological investigation legislation is to provide technological tools to give law enforcement personnel, through legal channels and due process, access to the same technologies as criminals to boost their investigative powers.
Rufus Lin is director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s High-Tech Crime Center.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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