FBI experts enlighten community about cyber crime protection

FRANKFORD — Cyber Crimes, IC3, an online crime report center created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center, ranked New Jersey number six in the country for most reported cyber crimes.

On Monday at the Sussex County Fire Academy, Statewide Insurance Fund, a group that provides all lines of insurance coverages to 73 public entities throughout the state, held a seminar for interested Sussex County municipalities to learn about the dangers of fraud and online crimes.

“Towns have secure information on employees and taxpayers that could be subject to a cyber threat in the event that their systems were compromised,” Fund Administrator Caroline Conboy said. “So we felt that it was important to educate the members on the risk that is out there and to help them create best practices for their systems to prevent loss.”

Special Agent Doug Veizia and Intelligence Analyst Nicole Sette of the FBI Newark Cyber Squad, spoke to 32 members of the Sussex County community.

“We do a lot of outreach on these topics,” Veizia said. “It is our way of making people aware. Because our goal is to stop the crimes before they happen, by having people change their conduct and if they do become aware of an issue, to encourage them to report it.”

Veizia spoke on “Disaster Relief Fraud,” which also addressed other types of fraud such as corporate insurance fraud, premium diversion fraud, and workers compensation fraud.

Veizia said that in the past disasters were something that people thought about once a year, mostly during hurricane or tornado season, but because of all the relief charities that are set to help those affected, these disasters are now a year-round event.

“Current estimates are that Hurricane Sandy will outpace Katrina in the total number cases of fraud,” Veizia said.

Sette explained that IC3 takes all of the cyber crime complaints and collates them so that the FBI can examine them and possibly find patterns and larger cases of fraud.

Cyber criminals use multiple strategies such as phishing and spoofing, Sette said. Phishing is the act of researching a target and sending them an email that makes it sound as if the target has met the criminal in the past and implores them to click on a link in the email or open an attachment that then releases malware onto the victim’s computer and gives the criminal access to the network. Spoofing is similar to phishing, except it involves recreating an email address that is similar to a person close to the intended target, so no foul play is suspected.

Sette admits that it is human nature to open emails and click on links, especially when you are offered something in return, such as a trip to Great Adventure, but the best way to avoid cyber crime is to not click on the links.

Lynda Knott, Stillwater Township’s municipal clerk, said she learned a lot from the two-hour seminar and plans to visit the websites that Veizia and Sette gave as references to look for best Internet practices and have a discussion with township employees about not opening the links in the emails unless they know the sender and know for sure it is legitimate.

Conboy, based on questions that were asked, felt good that guests took some good information away from the seminar.

“It is important that the message that is brought home is that you have to pay attention to what your Internet policies are and to adopt a best practice and make sure that it is implemented and updated accordingly to prevent these attacks,” she said.