- The DETEC’s Service for Special Tasks (DTA) is an administrative and technical intermediary for postal and telecommunications surveillance measures and is not bound by directives.
- The DBA examines applications, commissions providers, maintains dossiers and monitors correct, timely execution; the results are evaluated by the law enforcement authorities.
- National structures are created to coordinate the fight against cybercrime; DBA cooperates with cantons, police and working groups; direct FDJP connections are not required.
Interpellation Polla (01.3779): Combating cybercrime. Role of DETEC’s Special Tasks Service.
9.12.2003: The proposal is written off, as the author has left the Council.
Submitted text
I refer to the measures against cybercrime envisaged by the Federal Council in the report on the 1999 – 2003 legislative planning and ask the Federal Council to comment on the following questions:
1. what role does DETEC’s Special Tasks Service play in combating cybercrime?
2. how its work is evaluated and controlled, especially in terms of taking into account the needs of the cantonal investigating judges?
3. what are the links and relationships between the DETEC Special Tasks Service and the cantonal judicial and police authorities?
4. what are the links in the fight against cybercrime between DETEC’s Special Tasks Service and the FDJP?
Justification
Combating cybercrime is one of the Federal Council’s stated priorities in its 1999 – 2003 legislative planning. This Federal Council objective is particularly important today for a number of reasons. Communications networks and IT systems operate across states. As a result, the difficulties already encountered by judicial and law enforcement authorities within Switzerland in prosecuting persons who commit offenses in the area of information technology are considerably increased.
New investigative tools are constantly needed to combat crime in virtual space. For example, all G‑8 countries have created structures to combat high-tech crime. In these countries, national police forces and the various judicial bodies cooperate particularly intensively and efficiently in the fight against IT crime. Such cooperation is certainly fundamental, and transparency in the activities of the various instances is essential for effectively combating cybercrime. To address this challenge, special coordination measures are needed in our federally organized country. The distribution of competencies among different departments appears problematic in this context, especially because insufficient information is provided today about the reasons for and objectives of such a distribution, as well as about its effectiveness.
Officially, the DETEC Special Tasks Service was created to simplify the investigative activities of the prosecuting authorities. In practice, however, it is sometimes difficult for investigating judges to obtain certain information within a useful period of time, i.e. very quickly. For example, it is not easy to obtain a list of all connections that have been made via a certain telecommunications antenna or to obtain the corresponding log files from the Internet providers on the basis of known IP addresses. With my interpellation, I would like to obtain detailed information on the exact function and operation of the DETEC Special Tasks Service, its effectiveness and transparency, as well as its cooperation with the FDJP, the courts and the cantonal police authorities in the fight against cybercrime.
Statement of the Federal Council
The Federal Council is aware of the special need for coordination to combat cybercrime efficiently. It therefore intends to create a national coordination office together with the cantons as of January 1, 2003. With this office, Internet monitoring will be resumed in the Federal Office of Police and a new clearing office will be introduced. This will create a single point of contact for foreign countries. The realization of the coordination office is also a prerequisite for the application of the Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Convention in Switzerland and makes it possible to join the G‑8 network promoted by the EU.
The DETEC’s Special Tasks Service (DTA) is responsible for monitoring postal and telecommunications traffic and, in this function, is the administrative and technical liaison and coordination point between the cantonal or federal law enforcement authorities on the one hand and telecommunications service providers on the other.
The DTA is administratively assigned to DETEC and fulfills its task without being bound by instructions. In the fight against crime, it has no independent role insofar as it only becomes active at the request of the cantonal or federal prosecution authorities. Its activities are based on the Federal Act on the Surveillance of Postal and Telecommunications Traffic of 6 October 2000 (BÜPF; SR 780.1) and the associated ordinance of 31 October 2001 (VÜPF; SR 780.11), both in force since 1 January 2002.
(1) In the area of combating cybercrime, the DTA has the same tasks and competences as in the other areas of combating crime. It receives applications for the interception of telecommunications, checks whether the formal requirements are met, identifies the provider who must implement the interception measure and gives the provider the corresponding order. It forwards the data collected from the provider to the authority that requested the interception measure.
(2) For each surveillance measure, the DTA shall keep a dossier containing the essential data of the surveillance application. In particular, this also contains the requesting authority, the approving authority, the time of the order placement and the order completion. In this respect, the DBA is responsible for supervising the correct and timely execution of the order.
The evaluation of the work, i.e. the evaluation of the results of a particular surveillance measure, is not carried out by the DBA, but by those law enforcement agencies that issued the order.
3. the DBA is a service company that fulfills the orders of the cantonal and federal law enforcement authorities. Within this framework, it is available to the law enforcement authorities in an advisory capacity for all questions relating to surveillance measures (information on technical possibilities, expected costs, etc.). Furthermore, upon invitation, the DTA is involved in the various committees and meetings of the law enforcement authorities; there is a working group consisting of representatives of the law enforcement authorities, the DBA and the GS DETEC, which regularly discusses issues related to the interception of telecommunications.
4. there is a working group between the Confederation and the cantons, led by the Federal Office of Police, in which cybercrime issues are discussed (AG Bemik, Working Group on Combating the Misuse of Information and Communication Technology). The DBA has been invited to participate in the working group meetings and uses them as an information platform for its activities. There are no further links between the FDJP and the DTA with regard to combating cybercrime, nor is there any need for them in view of the function of the DTA described above.