[attach id=334379 size="medium"]Timothy Zammit: “The main thing that leads to people being victimised is complacency.” Photo: Matthew Mirabelli[/attach]

The office phone of police inspector Timothy Zammit rings and he is informed that a case of “sextortion” has reached the Cyber Crime Unit.

The victim, a man, is claiming that a foreigner he befriended on Facebook convinced him to “expose himself naked” on webcam. She then threatened to send the images to all his Facebook friends if he does not pay up.

“This is one of the typical calls received at the Cyber Crime Unit. What we do in such cases is gather as much information as possible from the victim and then direct the individual to lodge a formal report so that the investigation process kicks in,” says Mr Zammit, who heads the unit.

He stresses that police must have a formal report in hand to investigate and contact a service provider – Facebook, in this case – to track down a perpetrator.

20

– the number of child pornography cases each year

Facebook’s Global Government Requests Report showed that Malta’s police filed 170 requests for user information last year. In such cases, Mr Zammit says, police have to follow rigorous procedures. Before contacting the service provider they first must establish whether the report actually constitutes a crime under Maltese law.

If police conclude a crime has been committed, they are obliged to investigate. A formal request is sent to Facebook, outlining the crime being investigated, and asking for traffic data that is limited to the IP address and date and time of activities relevant to the investigation.

Facebook has the discretion to turn down the request by, for example, claiming freedom of expression.

Contrary to movie-fuelled perception, Mr Zammit says, police cannot access content data like private messages, photos and correspondence from Facebook.

If the request is acceded to by Facebook, and it turns out that the IP address is local, police contact local internet service providers. If it is located overseas, they contact their colleagues in the relevant country. In fact, he says, since the Cyber Crime Unit was set up in 2003 it built a relationship with an international network that allows access to information in urgent cases.

“This channel of communication is only a less formal, yet, official method of requesting information,” he says, adding that international units have collaborated on a range of operations, including investigations into child pornography websites.

Mr Zammit says the unit receives about 20 cases of child pornography each year – some through its collaboration with the Be Smart Online website managed by support agency Appoġġ.

Also, since 2009, police manage a crime-prevention child abuse internet filter that blocks about 2,000 sites in collaboration with local internet service providers.

This reminds Mr Zammit of a case he describes as a highlight of his career: some years ago police came across a pornographic photo of a child during a search in a man’s house. The room the child was in indicated they might be Maltese.

“Using the name of the photo and other information found on the computer we identified the girl who was, by then, an adult. Being able to identify a victim with the very few tools we had in hand gave us a great amount of satisfaction and it also gave closure to the victim who had been victimised but never spoke about it,” he says.

He believes his unit, which deals with about 600 new cases a year, has a social role – and his colleagues agree. PS Joseph Muscat says that even though the job mainly involves dealing with computer screens, it brings him face-to-face with the real world through a range of crimes committed through the internet.

“What is surprising is that there is no stereotypical cyber criminal. It could be anyone. So you really have to be careful who to trust,” he says.

PS Edward Zammit adds: “It always amazes me that people who would not dare do something wrong in real life, somehow feel more daring online.”

In fact, Mr Zammit says, this is also one of the main reasons why people fall victim to cyber crimes – with the most common ones being computer misuse, online fraud and insults and threats.

“The main thing that leads to people being victimised is complacency. It happens in organisations and it happens to individuals who think: ‘It will never happen to me.’ The same precautions that you take in everyday life you need to take in your online life,” he says.

Cases involving the Cyber Crime Unit