The day-long seminar will take place in Des Moines on Tuesday, May 21.
"The rapid growth of technology means more opportunities for cyber-criminals and potential terrorists to attack our country's electronic infrastructures and financial systems," Grassley said. "By expanding these task forces, we can help the Secret Service crack down on high-tech and financial crimes like identity theft."
The seminar will focus on electronic and cyber-crime detection and prevention, and identity theft. Secret Service officials also will unveil the agency's regional electronic crimes task force, based in Chicago. The task force will serve as a resource to Iowa's law enforcement, private sector, and academic communities in an effort to prevent financial crimes, credit card and bank fraud, identity theft, computer system intrusions, and cyber-crime.
Grassley has also asked Senate appropriators for $17.2 million in additional fiscal 2002 funding for expansion of the Secret Service Electronic Crime Task Forces.
The national network of task forces will be modeled after the Secret Service's electronic crimes task force in New York. Since it began in 1995, New York task force investigations have resulted in more than 800 people being charged with electronic crimes valued at more than $500 million. The task force is a partnership of 50 different federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, 100 private companies and nine regional universities. It's also responsible for training more than 13,000 law enforcement personnel, prosecutors and private industry officials in the recognition and prevention of the criminal abuses of technology.
Grassley sent his funding request to Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Ted Stevens of Alaska, who as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee are responsible for drafting a spending plan to supplement federal funding this year.
Grassley is Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. This subcommittee has jurisdiction over agencies such as the Secret Service, the FBI, the DEA, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. It focuses on all crime-related areas, including terrorism and identity theft.
Grassley has identity theft legislation pending that would make it harder to steal someone's identity. It would impose additional duties on credit issuers and credit bureaus to ensure the accuracy of information in credit applications. The bill also speeds up the paperwork process after an identity theft has been committed so that victims can more quickly reclaim their good credit.