Criminal
computer intrusions can endanger privacy, safety, financial security,
and more. The problem of computer crime has grown so that it threatens
not only businesses and government agencies, but potentially every
Internet user. Current threats include malicious software, ransomware,
denial of service attacks, and data breaches. An underground economy has
grown to allow criminals to more easily obtain the tools necessary to
commit, and profit from, criminal computer intrusions. Drawing on the
public record, the talk will discuss how the Department of Justice has
employed criminal investigation and prosecution to respond to these
threats.
Bio:
Josh Goldfoot is principal deputy chief of the Computer Crime and
Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) in the Department of Justice’s
Criminal Division, where he helps supervise a group of 40 attorneys who
investigate and prosecute computer crimes and criminal intellectual
property offenses. Beginning in 2005, Josh worked at CCIPS prosecuting
computer intrusions and wiretap offenses, as well as serving as an
expert on the law of electronic evidence and online investigations. In
2013, Josh became deputy chief for cyber policy in the Department’s
National Security Division, and then returned to CCIPS in 2016, becoming
principal deputy chief in 2019. Josh has received the Attorney
General’s John Marshall Award for his work on remote computer searches,
the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for his work on a
botnet takedown, the FBI Director’s Award for an international hacking
case, and also four different Assistant Attorney General awards.
Josh has trained hundreds of AUSAs and DOJ attorneys in electronic
evidence, online investigations, computer intrusions, cybersecurity, and
prosecuting cybercrime. He has authored or co-authored five law review
articles about law and technology: The Pen-Trap Statute and the Internet (2018); A Trespass Framework for the Crime of Hacking (2016); The Physical Computer and the Fourth Amendment (2011); A Declaration of the Dependence of Cyberspace (2009), and Antitrust Implications of Internet Administration (1998). He
received a United States patent in 2008 for shape recognition
technology. He is a graduate of Yale University and earned his law
degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1999. He has
worked in technology law since 1999, when he advised Internet startups
in Silicon Valley on intellectual property issues. Prior to joining the
Department of Justice in 2005, he litigated civil cases, and clerked for
Judge Alex Kozinski on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Josh
authored and operates the web site “sentencing.us,” which calculates
U.S. federal sentencing guidelines.