Monday, September 9, 2002		Feature

ORGANISED crime gangs are becoming ever more technically advanced and are behind a dramatic rise in the amount of child pornography spread over the Internet, Canadian police said.

In its annual report on organised crime, Criminal Intelligence Service, Canada, said some gangs were taking advantage of "seemingly limitless resources" to become proficient in high-tech operations.

"It would appear that cost is no object when it comes to attaining or developing leading-edge technology to facilitate crimes or engage in counter-surveillance against rivals or law enforcement," the CISC said.

Credit card fraud is increasing and police are logging more crimes such as computer system intrusions, data and identity theft, intellectual property theft, as well as the dissemination of computer viruses.

"Over a relatively short time frame, the law enforcement community has witnessed an exponential expansion in both the scope and depth of organized crime's ability to use technology in furthering their criminal activities," the CISC said.

The report said Ottawa was expected to introduce new legislation later this year that would provide police with wider access to electronic information held by Canadian phone companies, banks and Internet service providers.

The CISC noted what it called an alarming boom in the distribution of child pornography over the Internet.

"Police report the number of images retrieved from seized computer hard drives during authorized searches has increased dramatically," it said. "They further note an increase in the level of violence depicted in these pornographic images."

The CISC — which co-ordinates all of Canada's law enforcement agencies — said it was being asked to help with a dramatically increased number of probes into child pornography.