Cyber Crime Investigators say fighting cyber crime is an uphill battle as more and more people are using the Internet to do many tasks such as business, shopping as well as to get information.

The Cyber Crime Investigation division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has been dealing with all types of cyber crimes since February, 2000. These include hacking, infringements on personal information as well as the release of Internet viruses or sexually-explicit content.

Recently the CCI arrested 11 members of a local hacking clan on charges of stealing personal information since July, 2000 from over 90 websites of mainly online shopping malls, universities and the National Tax Service security server.

“Cyber crime is committed via the Internet which provides anonymity. So, many cyber criminals appropriate other people's names and residence registration numbers to falsify their identities. This makes it all the more difficult for us in our crackdowns,” an investigator at CCI said.

Here more than 30 professional investigators, who were computer majors back in college, use specially-programmed computers that allow them to track down and possibly locate crime suspects through information provider, better known as IP addresses.

Once a suspect's location is confirmed, CCI computers have been programmed to set off an alarm. And this is when the investigators rush to the scene.

Even at this moment these Cyber Crime Investigators are monitoring to track down any irregularities in cyber space to help provide Koreans with a safe and healthy online environment.