Locals tour GBI office
By Diane Wagner
Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer
September 25, 2006
Imagine walking through the parking lot to your office and finding a tiny USB drive on the ground.
A natural response is to pick it up and plug it into your own computer to determine its origin, but Steve Blackwell, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation financial unit, warned that it could be one of the many new tricks devised by identity thieves.
“That’s how they can get past your company’s firewall,” he said.
“Then a program on the key starts farming your computer for personal information.”
With Internet connections becoming integrated into our lives through devices ranging from cell phones and PDAs to the USB “thumb drives” as small as a pack of gum — combined with a lack of caution about the snippets of information they post in various places online — Blackwell said one in four people will likely become victims of identity theft.
“They will make your life miserable trying to straighten it out,” he said, adding it’s important for victims to report the crime and keep a copy of the report on hand “forever.”
Blackwell was one of several agents who demonstrated their specialties to a group of local women Wednesday during a behind-the-scenes tour of the GBI headquarters arranged by state Rep. Barbara Massey Reece, D-Menlo.
“It’s not just (desk-top) computers that put you at risk anymore,” said Susan Dowling, a forensic computer specialist working with four other agencies to create a statewide task force to investigate and educate the public about crimes that happen on the internet.
Children are especially vulnerable, Dowling said, showing with a few clicks of a mouse how easily someone can parlay a Google search of information picked up in a chat room into a map with directions to a home.
“Predators view MySpace and other social networking blogs as their Sears catalog,” she said.
Plans are to seek grant money next year for a multi-agency task force, including the Georgia Department of Education, to expand the GBI’s fledgling Internet Crimes Against Children task force.
Chemical analysis unit
Elsewhere in the GBI headquarters complex Mark Burns, manager of the chemistry section, explained some of the science involved in analyzing crime scenes. Gunshot residue, DNA, fire debris, paint chips and fibers are among the trace evidence that makes its way to his laboratory.
“This is the type of thing you see on TV,” he said with a dry chuckle. “It takes a bit more than a few minutes to come up with the answer, but it’s the same technology.”
In addition to the main crime lab, the GBI runs seven branch labs across the state. The lab in Summerville, serving Northwest Georgia, reported the second-highest number of methamphetamine seizures in the state — topped only by a lab set up in the northeast corner of the state two years ago.
Reece served on a 2004 task force that held hearings on the growing menace.
“The sad thing about meth is that only about 6 out of 100 users ever get off of it. The other 94 will eventually lose their lives from the effects,” the legislator said.
Special operations unit
State-of-the-art technology and training also plays a key role in security, said Larry Landers, one of 25 special operations agents deployed around the state, including two in Calhoun. The unit handles duties ranging from bomb disposal, vulnerability assessments and dignitary protection to technical support such as wiretapping and electronic sweeps.
“We keep in touch with the FBI, the Department of Energy and other agencies that can tell us about terrorist tactics overseas,” Landers said. “We don’t care about who those people are. We just want to know the technology they use.”
The bomb technicians have an 85-pound suit they can wear to shield themselves while defusing a device, but humans, even those in the best shape, can’t withstand the “total encapsulation” longer than about 20 minutes, he said. A $150,000 mobile robot is the better choice in many cases.
“A few weeks ago one of the robots was coming out with a bomb when the bomb went off,” Landers said. “The blast did some heavy damage but didn’t destroy it. So you can see why we prefer the robots.”
A robot is part of the standard equipment on each of the GBI’s bomb disposal units, which are strategically placed so they can respond to any area of the state within an hour.
The trucks, bought with federal Homeland Security funding, are stocked with equipment to combat chemical, biological and radiological weapons of mass destruction. Bartow County is one of the “pre-position” sites, Landers said.