Discussion 4

Terrorism Cyber Crime Investigation

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review the MSCJ CyberNav Communication Case Study. You must support your statements throughout the paper with evidence from a minimum of eight scholarly sources in addition to those resources required for this course.

For this assignment you will take on the role of an investigator with one of the following agencies: FBI, CIA, U.S. Air Force, State Police, or County Sheriff. Your agency is tasked to find the source of the drone explosions and assess appropriate criminal liability. The focus for your criminal investigation and the abilities to gather evidence will necessarily depend upon the agency you choose, so choose wisely.

Include the following elements in your Final Paper:

• Identify your chosen agency and explain how the agency obtained jurisdiction over this criminal case.
• Identify the key witnesses and explain the evidence required to prosecute a criminal case.

  Analyze the technical aspects of the case study and explain the steps involved in building a case against the perpetrator(s).

• Explain the methods required to manage the cybercrime scene.
• Identify the possible defendants for any potential crimes committed.
• Evaluate the legal issues that pertain to the information in the case study and list the constitutional impediments to your investigation.
• Assess the defenses that potential defendants and Cybernav may assert in the investigation.
• Analyze the potential crimes and likelihood for obtaining any and all convictions for crimes committed in the case.

The Terrorism Cyber Crime Investigation Final Paper

• Must be 10 to 12 double-spaced pages (2500-3000 words) in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the UAGC Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate title page with the following:

  Title of paper
  Student’s name
  Course name and number
  Instructor’s name
  Date submitted

• Must use at least eight scholarly sources in addition to those resources required for this course.

  The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.

• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the UAGC Writing Center.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the UAGC library.

MSCJ CyberNav Communication Case Study

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contracting firm, Cybernav Communication,

employs both ex-military and civilian workers. Worker is a civilian employee in the drone

security system section of this private, for profit, company. Cybernav has a written

policy that does not allow employees to activate its top secret and secure VPN off work

properties (See policy).

Worker and other technicians in his department routinely take home and utilize the VPN

to get work done away from the office. It is unclear whether or not the company is

aware of this practice within this department. Worker has Special and Top Secret VPN

access to sensitive drone infrared, security systems, and tracking capabilities.

Worker recently took his computer home over a weekend to work on a time-sensitive

deadline project. Over the weekend, he invited his friend, Gambler, to his house. During

Gambler’s visit, Worker inadvertently left the VPN connection open and active on the

laptop computer in his home office. While Worker was out of the house picking up a few

things for a cookout for friends later in the day, Gambler used his computer to place

numerous bets via the Internet. Gambler spent 50 minutes on Worker’s computer,

accessing three international gaming sites.

The traffic for two of the international gambling sites is known to be monitored by at

least one Islamic terrorist group and three intelligence agencies of foreign governments

hostile to the United States.

While gambling on the Internet, at least one of the foreign country’s computer pirates

gleaned enough information to hack Cybernav’s VPN and learned how to gain access to

sensitive government computers and information.

The terrorist supporting states gained knowledge of how to trigger the self-destruct

mechanisms in the drones being developed by Cybernav Communications.

While testing the new drones over the desert of a friendly nation in the Middle East,

two of the first three drones exploded due to the self-destruct mechanisms being

activated 90 seconds after takeoff. Initially, the U.S. Air Force was unable to determine

why the drones were failing. Testing for the new drones has been halted, costing

taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and delaying the implementation of the new drones

indefinitely.

The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), U.S. Air

Force, State Police, County Sherriff and Cybernav have begun investigations into the

causes of the drone failures.