Definition

The Technological Investigation Brigade (BIT) is a unit of the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía, the national civilian police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 force of Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. BIT has the task of combating new and emerging forms of crime such as child pornography

Child pornography

Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...

, internet fraud

Internet fraud

Internet fraud refers to the use of Internet services to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme....

, communications fraud, cyber attacks, and piracy.

Mission

-Carry out complex investigations

-Coordinate investigations involving other jurisdictions

-Training personnel from the National Police Corp and foreign police agencies

-Coordination of investigations with origins in other countries

History

The idea for the BIT began in 1995 with the creation of the Group of Information Crimes within the Brigade of Economic and Financial Crimes. The group eventually split into separate sections of expertise that resemble its current organization. In 2002, the group gained its current name of the Technological Investigation Brigade (BIT). The BIT exists within the Unit of Economic and Fiscal Crime.

Structure

The BIT has three sections with diverse missions. The first section, comprising two groups, protects minors particularly from child pornography. These groups rescue endangered children and prosecute their abusers. The second section also contains two groups. One of these groups investigates internet offenses such as fraudulent credit cards usage, and more complex techniques such as phishing

Phishing

Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...

 and network attacks. The second group in the internet security section focuses exclusively on crimes involving industrial espionage

Industrial espionage

Industrial espionage, economic espionage or corporate espionage is a form of espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security purposes...

 and intellectual property

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

. The third section, dubbed the Technical Section deals with forensic analysis.

Crimes BIT Prosecutes

-They investigate threats, libel, or slander contained in e-mails, forums, newsgroups, and the internet.

-They combat child pornography and protect children from adverse uses of new technology.

-The BIT prevents fraud in communications such as pirating private movie channels.

-They investigate internet fraud

Fraud

In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...

, scams, unauthorized credit card use, and regulate online business.

-BIT investigates cyber security threats such as viruses, denial of service attacks, data theft, hacking

Hacking

Hacking may refer to:* Computer hacking, including the following types of activity:** Hacker , activity within the computer programmer subculture** Hacker , to access computer networks, legally or otherwise...

, blackmail

Blackmail

In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...

, and identity theft.

-The unit also investigates piracy of computer programs, music, and movies.

Contact

http://www.policia.es/bit/index.htm

http://www.tuenti.com/bit

http://www.facebook.com/BrigadaInvestigacionTecnologica