NPA to revamp criminal justice IT

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 22 Nov 2007

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been placed in charge of a project to develop and implement an IT solution for an integrated justice system (IJS), the agency`s annual report reveals.

The NPA`s Information Management Service Centre (IMSC) is lead agency in a plan to establish a "crime-to-punishment" transversal IT solution for the whole IJS. This includes the Department of Justice, the NPA, the police and prison services, as well as the Department of Social Development.

"The various bodies of the IJS... are funding the development of an end-to-end IJS information management system that will handle the entire justice process, from the first case report regarding a person, to his/her final discharge or rehabilitation report."

The annual report does not state what this will cost, or give any timelines for implementation. The NPA had not responded to questions in that regard at the time of publication.

The report also complains about delays "by SITA (State IT Agency) and other service providers" with some IT implementations. It notes that contracts for the provision of desktop services were only finalised when the IMSC "arranged meetings between the role players".

Nabbing fraudsters

Meanwhile, the NPA reported a number of successes in fighting cyber-crime. "Project Coolfrog 2: Station Caf'e" netted an "IT mastermind" who, as far as can be determined, caused "real prejudice to banking clients [worth] R20 million".

"In March 2007, the Gauteng office made a major breakthrough in the case by arresting an IT mastermind, involved in the acquisition and preparation of spyware that had been placed on South African banking systems. The suspect also played a major role in the moving of the proceeds of these Internet frauds to banking accounts in New York and other parts of the world.

"The DSO [Directorate Special Operations, the Scorpions] is addressing this syndicate that operates widely in SA and abroad."

Regarding "Project PC", the NPA said the Scorpions had, by the time of reporting, made 25 arrests in connection to key-logging-enabled fraud on the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development`s (DSD) Web site.

The annual report said fraudsters had used spyware to gain access to DSD usernames and passwords. They had used these to create more than 700 fake grant recipients on the SOCPEN computer system "amounting to several million rand in payments".

"It was found that syndicates are using key-loggers and/or spy software to infiltrate state computer systems with the objective of creating unlawful payments into bank accounts across the country."

The report also showed the Office for the Control of Interception and Monitoring of Communication, established under the Regulation of Interception of Communication and Provision of Communication-related Information Act, handled 300 "applications and considerations" in the 2006/7 financial year. This means about that number of people lawfully had their phones bugged.