NCJ Number
212434
Date Published
2003
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This CD-ROM provides guidance to State and local law enforcement executives and managers on protecting their information systems from security breaches.
Abstract
Recent data suggests that State and local law enforcement agencies are lagging behind on safeguarding vital information systems from technological breaches. Due to increased concerns over information security, the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) designed this CD-ROM presentation in cooperation with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to educate non-technical individuals on the importance of having multiple layers of security to protect law enforcement information systems and networks. The presentation is divided into five segments with each segment presenting a hypothetical case in which fictional Chief Hugh Wilson must answer to computer security breaches that have caused varying amounts of damage to the police agency. The five security breaches involve: (1) a police sergeant who was killed following the theft of a police laptop computer; (2) a pornographic site operating on the police department’s internal computer network; (3) the entire computer network for the city being shut down by hackers, rendering police files inaccessible; (4) the destruction of vital police files including criminal histories and evidence log files; and (5) the injection of pictures of Porky Pig into police computer files. Following each fictional scenario, a list of best practices are presented that would have helped stop the security breaches from occurring. These best practices range from installing and configuring firewalls to implementing and enforcing user policies. The CD-ROM also contains a resource section that identifies low-cost methods of computer security that most police agencies can immediately implement.