Security tokens help police efforts against gangs

Oct 1, 1999 12:00 PM, Carey Adams

Gangs have plagued the streets of America for years. The damage caused by gangs can be measured in the lives they have destroyed either through gang membership or violence.

Tracking gangs has become a full-time job for law enforcement. The 1997 National Youth Gang Survey estimated that 4,712 U.S. cities and counties experienced gang activity. The survey also estimated the number of gangs across the nation in 1997 at 30,500, totaling 816,000 members.

The statistics are alarming, especially to police agencies that have traced many crimes, including murder, to gang activity. Police efforts to control gangs have been complicated as gang members migrate to other cities and counties. Law enforcement officials who took part in the 1997 National Youth Gang Survey estimated that 23 percent of their gang members were migrants.

To curtail gang growth, law enforcement agencies have formed specialized police units solely to track gangs. The Cook County, Ill., Sheriff's Police Department has upgraded its approach to tracking gang activity through an intelligence information bulletin and database on the HTML platform.

GRAB (Gang Reduction Analysis Bulletin) is accessible via the Internet and the police department intranet. According to the Cook County Sheriff Police Department, GRAB is the first phase of a plan to provide a single source of up-to-date information on gangs.

According to a 1995 Chicago Crime Commission report, more than 125 gangs operate in the Chicago area, which encompasess Cook County. Between 30,000 and 50,000 hardcore gang members function in the city of Chicago and there are about 100,000 gang members overall in the area. The report states that the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department has tracked more than 58 satellite gangs to the suburbs.

The GRAB interactive tracking intelligence information bulletin and database can be accessed by any law enforcement officer. The GRAB system provides secure transactions on the Internet via a secure Web server and a security token device. The interface allows for searching records, intelligence information bulletins, and images as well as updating information.

Cook County Sheriff's Police Department consulted with several security experts about designing a tracking bulletin that could keep count of criminals once they had contact with the police department. Cook County police agreed to use a tracking system that can be accessed through the Internet.

GRAB was originally set up with an Internet access key from Vasco Data Security Inc., Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., that allowed officers to access the files to check up on suspected gang members. The file contains an image of the person and information such as gang membership, leadership, when police had contact with the individual, nicknames, and vital statistics. The files also contain information such as identifying marks on the body, arrest and booking records, FBI number, state identification number, make and model of vehicle, and other information that would help law enforcement officers identify a suspect.

The information contained in the Gang Reduction Analysis Bulletin comes from the Cook County Jail, Cook County Computerized Booking System, Cook County Sheriff's Police Gang Crimes Unit, and police departments around the country and the world.

DATA SECURITY VITAL TO PROJECT But with the information stored on computer and having the capability of being accessed through the Internet, the access key had vulnerabilities.

"The Internet was key to us. It is easily accessible, but we had to come up with a solution that was doable so everyone couldn't have access," says Cook County Lt. Peter Staley.

According to Staley, the police department needed a system that was virtually impregnable to hackers.

Cook County Sheriff's Police Department officials consulted with Vasco about implementing a security tool that would limit who could access the GRAB database.

"They started off in 1997 with an access key for the program and then they called us stating that they needed more security for it," says Vasco representative Taunia Roberts.

Vasco upgraded the program by implementing a security token. The Vasco Digipass 300 token limits the information shared on GRAB to authorized users. The Internet security is provided by use of the Vasco Data key which generates a one-time password key every time access is requested.

Static passwords control access to the data on GRAB. The Microsoft NT server software component of the security token device enhances the access control mechanism of the GRAB secure Web server by generating authentication challenges requiring the one-time passwords. The portable hardware key component of the GRAB system reads the challenges sent by the GRAB secure Web server and generates unique one-time passwords that precisely identify and authenticate the user to the GRAB Web server.

"It is a unique system. That is what made it interesting to us," Staley says.

According to Staley, the Digipass 300 security token has provided the extra security the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department needed.

Before someone can access GRAB, they must purchase the Digipass 300 token, available for $56. Once the Digipass is purchased, law enforcement officials must get the clearance of the Cook County Sheriff Police Department's Gang Crimes Unit.

"We have to have an interdepartmental agreement and then they must go through a day-long course that provides information on the program," Staley says.

Once law enforcement officers have been given clearance, they have the ability to tap into GRAB to search and update the files. Any intelligence information, records and images received are kept on a separate machine and not appended to the database until verified by the Gang Crimes Unit.

All information added to the bulletin portion of GRAB is kept in one file according to the date and time it is received.

Since the Digipass 300 token is portable, access to GRAB is possible through a laptop computer, which allows officers in police cruisers to identify suspected gang members during their patrols.

According to the Cook County Police Sheriff's Department, the future of GRAB might include information on all types of criminals, including armed robbers, burglars and sexual predators.

"We like the system and it has been very successful so far," Staley says.

On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service, a new federal bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for protecting national parks and monuments.

The National Park System of the United States comprises 378 areas covering more than 83 million acres in 49 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan, and the Virgin Islands. These areas are of such national significance as to justify special recognition and protection in accordance with various acts of Congress.

In the 1920s, sculptor Gutzon Borglum chose 5,725-foot Mt. Rushmore, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, as the site to immortalize four American presidents and their ideals. Borglum's choice of subjects - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln - promised to elevate the memorial from a regional enterprise to a national cause, "in commemoration of the foundation, preservation and continental expansion of the United States."

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