Behind the Badge
The search for a hacker who infiltrated a local pension database led the Orange County Sheriff’s Department cybercrime investigations unit across the Atlantic Ocean.
A 37-year-old man from a suburb of London was arrested in England on suspicion of hacking into the Orange County Employees Retirement System, which manages pensions and retirement benefits for county employees.
The Reading Chronicle, a British newspaper, reported that the suspect was taken into custody Sept. 1 by the South East Regional Organized Crime Unit’s cybercrime team.
The OCSD’s Scott Yuen investigates cybercrimes.
Photo by Christine Cotter
The name of the suspect has not been released because the case is ongoing, said Scott Yuen, an investigator with the OCSD’s recently formed Cybercrime Investigations Unit, which has been working the case since early 2016.
“Their IT staff was able to extract enough information so that we could recognize, that yes, there were indicators to show that some of the members’ accounts were accessed by somebody other than the member, which allowed the attackers to access the personal information and … manipulate the information,” Yuen said. “They notified us and we started working together.”
More often than not, hackers are operating outside of the jurisdiction where computers are being illegally accessed, Yuen said. So it’s understandable, he said, that hackers in England would be able to infiltrate computer systems in Orange County.
In the OCERS case, the suspect fraudulently set up members’ accounts on the OCERS site and added bank accounts where pensions were to be paid.
Scott Yuen, Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigator, discusses the challenges of fighting cybercrime.
Photo by Christine Cotter
When the investigation led to computer systems in England, Yuen contacted British authorities, who took over the case.
The British newspaper reported that the suspect was arrested on suspicion of unauthorized access of a computer system with intent to commit further offences, unauthorized access to a computer system with intent to impair operation of a computer, and fraud by false representation.
Investigating these types of cybercrimes usually involves more than just computer forensics, said Sgt. Carol Almaguer, who oversees the OCSD’s Cybercrime unit
Forensics may lead investigators to the location where computer crimes are being initiated, but finding the suspect or suspects who were at the keyboard is where old-fashioned detective work comes into play, Almaguer said.
Photo by Christine Cotter
“That is where the cop in us comes in,” Almaguer said. “Merging these two worlds and bringing it together and solving crimes and arresting people is what we want to do.”
Investigating computer crime is a relatively new facet of local law enforcement, Yuen said, and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has been a strong advocate for getting and maintaining resources to keep the cybercrime unit operating.
The cybercrime unit has been up and running since July and is comprised of three specially trained investigators who handle cases involving intrusions into county government and local business computer systems, said Lt. Dave Sawyer, who oversees the OCSD Criminal Investigations Bureau.
“Almost every single crime out there has some kind of nexus to computers,” Sawyer said. “We need a detail that stands on its own that handles such intrusions.”
Prior to the unit’s formation, OCSD cybercrime investigators served in an ancillary role within other units, such as the Economics Crime Detail, Sawyer said.
“We have to go beyond … into a new venture and into a new frontier and go where local law enforcement hasn’t been able to go,” Yuen said.
Photo by Christine Cotter
