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The Secret Service also has jurisdiction over various types fraud - including telecommunications fraud and computer fraud. Given that the primary charge against
by elemeno 14y ago
The Secret Service also has jurisdiction over various types fraud - including telecommunications fraud and computer fraud. Given that the primary charge against Swartz was for Wire Fraud, it would certainly seem like something that could fall under their jurisdiction, or at the very least something that they'd be interested in enough to check if it should fall under them or should be left to another branch of law enforcement.
- tibbon 14y agoDo you know anything about the legislative and constitutional history of this? Why them and not the FBI or something? Seems very odd, but maybe just one of those weird government quirks.
- tptacek 14y agoThe short of it is, USSS was, as "the Treasury police", responsible for counterfeiting investigations, and so inherited wire fraud. In the '80s, authority over wire fraud became authority over computer crime; as you can see, even in 2012, computer crime charges are often connected to wire fraud charges.
- elemeno 14y agoThe irony is that whilst they're best known for protecting the President and other dignitaries, that they do so is the historical quirk and has nothing to do with what they were originally set up to do. From what I can tell, even today, their primary focus in terms of manpower is on fraud and counterfeiting, even if it's not their most visible side.
- azernik 14y agoTracking wire/mail fraud (interstate financial fraud, for the most part) was actually their original purpose. When a presidential protection unit was first being put together, the FBI didn't exist yet, so the Secret Service was the only police agency under Federal control, and they got the protection detail as a kind of side job. These days, they're best known as bodyguards, but they still have their original mission to deal with.
- joezydeco 14y agoLet's imagine MIT was working on some kind of defense-related project ala Whirlwind. Could it be possible that the Secret Service gets called in on any possible suspicious activity on any network connected to such a thing?
- betterunix 14y agoIOW any network connected to the Internet, which would basically be almost all civilian networks and many military networks.
- ianfernz 14y agoSomeone has to handle it.
- ericcumbee 14y agoDepends if it were dod as a whole or a specific branch. If it involved one branch it would probably be NCIS for navy and marines or the respective CIDs for air force or army. The dod angle had crossed my mind. You can not hold a position above l1 help desk at Georgia tech without top secret clearance. All due to the defense research conducted at GT.
- ims 14y ago18 U.S.C. 3056 may be instructive here: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3056 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3056
- Pitarou 14y agoIt could also be that the Secret Service swallowed the "copyright math" bullshit, and treating is as a case of significant economic impact.