International Serious and Organised Crime Conference 2013
 

Concurrent session 1a—Intelligence: New communications technologies and organised crime investigations

Mr Alister McCulloch, Intelligence Analyst, Crime and Misconduct Commission

The use of new communications technologies by organised criminal groups will have a significant impact on future law enforcement operations. Crime groups are benefiting from default encryption settings, an ever-expanding range of communication applications and the fact that an increasing proportion of communication services are provided by overseas-based companies. New technologies also assist organised crime groups to network more easily with groups based interstate or overseas. These trends have significant consequences regardless of whether groups deliberately seek out new technologies or incidentally benefit from the default settings on commonly used devices and applications.

This presentation examines the major communication technology trends affecting law enforcement investigations into organised crime in Queensland. It also outlines some of the ways in which law enforcement is responding to these trends. These responses include investment in alternative investigative strategies such as human sources, electronic and physical surveillance, and other technical capabilities. There will also be opportunities for law enforcement agencies to creatively use new technologies as investigative tools, including ‘virtual’ human sources and ‘crowdsourced’ intelligence.