Tony Rankine, Superintendent of the Serious Fraud Investigation Branch of the South Australian Police said the move was being contemplated under the Electronic Crime Strategy of the Police Commissioners' Conference Electronic Crime Steering Committee.
"We are implementing a two year work plan focusing on e-crime prevention, partnerships, education needs and present capabilities," Rankine says. "We are looking at whether we need to outsource some of the investigation work."
The plan, released in March 2001, identified five focus areas and outlined a series of approaches to combat electronic crime in Australia. These included:
- Prevention
- Partnerships
- Education and Capability
- Resources and Capacity
- Regulation and Legislation
State police throughout Australia are looking for novel approaches to human resourcing, including a greater levels of integration with the private sector, increased training and expertise within state police departments and even outsourcing certain investigative roles and procedures.
The Electronic Crime Strategy calls for a mixed approach integrating proactive prevention and effective responses, which has seen state police across the country focus on internal and external education campaigns.
In addition to the Australasian Computer Crime Managers Group, which has met annually for the last decade, state police also liaise through the Police Commissioners' Conference Electronic Crime Steering Committee and the Australasian E-Crime Working Party in order to establish national approaches to computer crime and develop standards for computer forensic methodologies and other investigative procedures.
"The police commissioner's e-crime working party meets every two or three months, usually by video conference," explained Ted Wisniewski, officer in charge of computer crime investigation in the Western Australian Police. "We have a number of work plans and tasks to be carried out at a national level, and each party can take on a task and aim to develop it for the national level."
For a comprehensive overview of the e-crime strategies being developed by Australia's law enforcement agencies, visit ZDNet Australia's e-crime special report.
