US GOVT. "CYBER MOD SQUAD" SEEKS TO DISARM CYBER TERRORISTS.

The US government's "e-crime fighters" are coming to the rescue of companies that have suffered from lost work hours and months of costly repair following virus or hacker attacks, according to a published report.

From denial-of-service attacks to telecommunications fraud, the Secret Services' Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF) often nabs the savviest cyber criminals within days of an attack. The report also describes how alliances with private companies are helping the unit solve crimes they often didn't even know were occurring.

The unit is a 240-strong central cyber crime clearinghouse for all arms of local, state and national law enforcement. Headed by the New York office of the Secret Service, the ECTF boasts a membership of 180 top federal and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. The ECTF network also includes about 60 companies from the private sector, mostly from the telecommunications, banking/finance and vendor/services communities.

For private sector groups like Internet Trading Technologies Inc. (ITTI), which suffered a denial-of-service attack that disabled its Web site earlier this year, the ECTF offers expertise in computer forensics beyond the scope of what some local law enforcement agencies can provide. In ITTI's case, constant denial-of-service blows were crippling its online trading systems. The ECTF team was able to analyze and trace the culprit in just four hours. The cyber attacker, a former ITTI chief programmer, was apprehended while still sitting at the keyboard.

According to the report in Computerworld, when it comes to cyber terrorism, the ECTF is the most important single point of contact and resources in the law enforcement community for many private sector companies. The agency allows companies to coordinate efforts, share information, review cases and learn from other investigations. The Computerworld report is online at www.computerworld.com.