Not only are these guys helping to fight crime, but they are also helping the environment!

 

 

Santa Clara county’s crime lab has been honored with a gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for energy efficiency and sustainability in building materials.  Lights turn off automatically and rooms are lit with energy-efficient light fixtures.  Paints, flooring, sealants and furniture are made with low or no volatile organic compounds.  This project even diverted 95% of construction debris away from landfills.  Even the landscaping is eco-conscious.

Taking their Superhero strengths to the mat for innocent victims, our heroes fight crime of all kinds.  Technology assisted crimes are an area of special focus for these Silicon Valley heroes. In 2003, Silicon Valley formed a task force to fight heinous technology assisted crimes such as web based child exploitation in the valley and the surrounding areas.  Thanks to the Valley’s technology-based businesses, they can track down pedophiles and put these criminals behind bars.

The Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children task force investigates web-issued child pornography and child abuse or exploitation resulting from internet contact.  This task force covers much of the bay area, from Santa Cruz to Napa counties and works with the local F.B.I, I.C.E., and U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Just this past February, the task force arrested 5 Marin County residents suspected of downloading child pornography.  4 of the 5 went to Marin County Jail, while the 5th was a minor who was cited and released.

Yet cybercrime is not restricted to just the Silicon Valley, and our Heroes are rising to a call for action from the highest levels of our government. If fact,  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will make a personal pitch for help to tech companies in San Jose. This is no small mission for our heroes. Some experts say the U.S. could be crippled by adversaries in future cyberwars. Others say the technology that’s already been pilfered amounts to a lost national treasure. In July, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn revealed that “foreign intruders” have taken “terabytes of data” from defense companies, ranging from specifications for parts of tanks, airplanes and submarines to “our most sensitive systems.”

Several Bay Area corporations — including Adobe Systems, eBay, Intel, Cisco Systems, McAfee and PayPal — have joined with Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to counter cybervillains through the lab’s Network Security Innovation Center, which opened in July. Some of the same companies — along with Hewlett-Packard, NetApp, Symantec, VMware and Juniper Networks — are providing help to military and intelligence agencies.

In addition, the Department of Homeland Security has set up a Cyber Security Research and Development Center at the nonprofit Menlo Park think tank SRI International; dozens of local companies share information through the FBI’s InfraGard program; and other Bay Area companies work individually with federal agencies to combat cyberthreats.

FireEye of Milpitas, has deployed systems in over 60 federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, and has worked with the FBI “to help bring down botnets,” groups of computers controlled by cybercrooks.

 

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