N.Y. Federal Prosecutor Opens Unit to Fight Cybercrime

Sep 05 2001

NEW YORK -- Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White announced the formation of a Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property unit, comprised of five prosecutors who will specialize in computer and intellectual property crimes.

The CHIPs unit will focus on computer intrusions; Internet and computer fraud; theft of trade secrets and economic espionage; and other forms of computer crimes, White said.

The announcement follows Attorney General John Ashcroft's decision in July to create 10 CHIPs units across the country to combat Internet crime.

In recent years, White's office has prosecuted a number of cybercrime and intellectual property cases, including the arrest of Kazakhstan nationals in London in connection with the attmepted extortion of Bloomberg L.P.; the prosecution of a law firm paralegal for the electronic theft of a litigation trial plan; and the theft of proprietary business plans belonging to MasterCard and the attempted sale of those plans to representatives of Visa.