Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act of 2017

(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the Senate on October 2, 2017. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act of 2017

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize a National Computer Forensics Institute within the U.S. Secret Service for FY2017-FY2022. The institute shall: (1) disseminate information related to the investigation and prevention of cyber and electronic crime and related threats; and (2) educate, train, and equip state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges.

Institute functions include:

• educating such officers, prosecutors, and judges on current cyber and electronic crimes and related threats, methods for investigating such crime and threats and for conducting computer and mobile device forensic examinations, and related prosecutorial and judicial challenges;
• training such officers to conduct investigations of such crime and related threats, as well as such forensic examinations, and to respond to network intrusion incidents; and
• training such officers, prosecutors, and judges on methods to obtain, process, store, and admit digital evidence in court.

The institute:

• shall ensure that timely, actionable, and relevant expertise and information related to such crime and related threats is shared with such officers and prosecutors;
• may provide such officers with computer equipment, hardware, software, manuals, and tools necessary to conduct investigations of such crime and related threats and such forensic examinations; and
• shall facilitate the expansion of the network of Electronic Crime Task Forces of the Secret Service through the addition of officers trained at the institute.

(Sec. 3) The bill amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to establish a new part, which may be cited as the National White Collar Crime Control Act of 2017, authorizing the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance to enter into a cooperative agreement or make a grant for training and technical assistance to help law enforcement officers, investigators, auditors, and prosecutors identify, investigate, and prosecute white collar crime.

White collar crime includes high-tech crime, economic crime, and Internet-based crime against children and child pornography.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov