U.S. Department
of Justice
Cyber & IP Western Hemisphere
Background
The U.S. Transnational and High-Tech Crime Global Law Enforcement Network (GLEN) program is the result of a partnership between the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (DOS/INL) and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (DOJ/CCIPS) and Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (DOJ/OPDAT).
The GLEN is a worldwide law enforcement capacity building network of International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (ICHIP) attorney advisors, computer forensic analysts (Global Cyber Forensics Advisors or GCFAs), and federal law enforcement agents who deliver training and technical assistance to foreign law enforcement, prosecutorial, and judicial partners to combat intellectual property and cybercrime activity, as well as to assist in the collection and use of electronic evidence to combat all types of crime, including transnational organized crime (TOC).
Currently, ICHIPs are posted to regional positions in Africa (Abuja, Nigeria and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Asia (Hong Kong S.A.R.; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Bangkok, Thailand (part-time DOJ/OIA Attaché focused on IPR)), Europe (Bucharest, Romania; Zagreb, Croatia; and The Hague, Netherlands), and Western Hemisphere (São Paulo, Brazil and Panama City, Panama. Two subject-matter expert ICHIPs -- the ICHIP for Global Internet Fraud and Public Health (IFPH) and the ICHIP for Global Dark Web and Cryptocurrency (DWC) -- as well as DOJ computer forensic analysts and law enforcement officials with intellectual property and cybercrime expertise also form part of the GLEN.
The objective of the GLEN is to promote the rule of law and to protect Americans from criminal threats emanating from abroad by delivering targeted training to encourage both immediate improvements as well as long-term institutional change. This assistance includes training workshops, legislative review, case-based mentoring, skills development and promoting institutional reform, such as the formation of specialized units to address these criminal threats. Finally, the ICHIPs encourage countries to join the Council of Europe’s Convention against Cybercrime (Budapest Convention) as well as the G7 24-7 High Tech Crimes Digital Evidence Sharing Network (HTCN), an informal network that provides high-tech expert contacts to assist in preserving and sharing digital evidence.
IPR-Focused ICHIP
The São Paulo-based ICHIP supports the capacity-building needs in partner nations throughout the Western Hemisphere by assessing the capacity of law enforcement authorities to enforce IPR; developing and delivering capacity building assistance, primarily mentoring and skills training designed to enhance the capacity of justice sector personnel to enforce IPR; assisting in developing or strengthening institutions dedicated to IPR enforcement; monitoring regional trends in IPR protection; and providing expert assistance in support of U.S. intellectual property (IP) policies and initiatives in the region. The IPR ICHIP assists foreign partners with legislative drafting and preparing country submissions for the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual Special 301 Report. Finally, the ICHIP acts as a liaison between U.S. law enforcement partners in the region and rights-holders, whose support is critical for IPR investigations and prosecutions.
Both ICHIPs’ work helps to foster networks among justice sector actors in the region to combat these transnational crimes. ICHIP assistance has led to the seizure of digital piracy sites and arrest of site administrators for the first time in Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.
The ICHIP program has sparked similar commitment and efforts from authorities to seize counterfeit hard goods and enforce their own IPR criminal laws. In São Paulo, the ICHIP program has developed an innovative public-private interagency group of U.S. rights-holders and municipal and federal officials. Over the past several years, the group has seized over 4,187 tons of counterfeit goods with an estimated value of at least $522 million USD and criminally prosecuted individuals for facilitating slave labor and/or distributing counterfeit goods. The ICHIP program supports a whole-of-government approach by promoting inter-agency national and regional working groups focused on IPR enforcement.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICHIP program helped foreign partners combat cyber-enabled COVID-related fraud and shifted attention to e-commerce platforms used to sell counterfeit goods. These endeavors led to numerous seizures of counterfeit and potentially unprotective personal protective equipment throughout the region despite limited resources and personnel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cyber-Focused ICHIP
The Panama City-based ICHIP covers the Western Hemisphere region, developing the knowledge and skills of prosecutors, police, cyber forensic analysts, and judges to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate complex cybercrime and cyber-enabled crime through case-based mentoring and skills training. This work promotes the creation of networks for cooperation among relevant criminal justice actors in the region. The ICHIP also assists foreign counterparts in drafting and implementing institutional and legislative reforms that will facilitate the successful investigation and prosecution of such crime. Additionally, the ICHIP shares best practices with law enforcement officials and regulators throughout the region on investigating emerging threats such as the sale of illicit goods and services on the dark web and the use of cryptocurrencies to pay for or launder money from transnational criminal activity. Finally, the ICHIP raises awareness of international tools for combating cybercrime collaboratively. ICHIP case-based mentoring and skills development workshops on cases involving electronic evidence stored overseas buoyed Brazilian law enforcement officials’ efforts to seek accession to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. The Council of Europe formally invited Brazil to join the Convention in 2019, and Brazil formally acceded in December 2022.
IPR-Focused ICHIP Recent Activities
- November 2023: A group of ICHIP São Paulo mentored prosecutors and police carried out the sixth phase of Operation 404, a multi-national effort to combat digital piracy. This iteration included new support from Argentine and Peruvian authorities and led to the successful disruption of over 600 piracy sites and applications.
- November 2023: ICHIP São Paulo hosted the first training on counterfeit semi-conductors and microelectronics for Mexican, Costa Rican and Panamanian authorities. The training raised awareness of the dangers of shoddy and counterfeit microelectronics and their national and economic security interests for the host countries.
- October 2023: ICHIP São Paulo participated as speakers in the two separate Intellectual Property Conferences organized by the Chilean Police and Brazilian Police.
- September 2023: ICHIP São Paulo and IFPH, with support from the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance, inaugurated the Digital Piracy Working Group (DPWG) for officials from six Latin American countries. This working group will support future efforts to coordinate global efforts against digital piracy. In the following weeks, Brazil requested ICHIP support to expand their digital piracy enforcement training and multiple cases of counterfeiting, trade-based money laundering, and other crimes were identified by DWPG members.
Cyber-Focused ICHIP Recent Activities
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December 2023: ICHIP Panama City and GCFAs hosted the second phase of a training to certify forensic analysts and police from Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Peru as Digital Forensic Incident Response Specialists.
- October 2023: Following an analysis conducted by a member of the ICHIP-led Western Hemisphere Cryptocurrency Working Group, Colombian law enforcement arrested six members of a criminal organization accused of defrauding approximately 200,000 victims between 2020 and 2022. A total of $30 million USD was passed through various shell companies to facilitate the fraud.
- July 2023: Following ICHIP advocacy and trainings, the Government of Belize formally joined the G7 24/7 High Tech Network for international preservation of digital evidence.
- June 2023: ICHIP-mentored Argentine prosecutors oversaw the first-ever government seizure of cryptocurrency just days after a meeting of the Western Hemisphere Cryptocurrency Working Group. The prosecutors thanked the ICHIPs and USG presenters for providing skills and training to conduct the investigation and seizure.
- April-May 2023: ICHIP São Paulo hosted workshops in Argentina and Brazil focused on detecting online threats of violence and preventing mass attacks in public spaces, such as school shootings. The training provided law enforcement with techniques to detect plots online and strategies to effectively investigate while preserving public safety.