Dr. Jacob Petersen using a Micro-Raman spectrometer in the
Engineering and Mining Experiment
Station at South Dakota Mines. High-tech equipment like this will be employed
by the new Center for Understanding and Disrupting the Illicit Economy at
university research labs across the state.
South Dakota
Mines researchers are leading a fight to understand and disrupt illegal
criminal networks that are responsible for everything from ransomware attacks
to the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit goods, to illegal narcotics,
to poaching. Mines researchers will combine their expertise in material
science, including counterfeit identification and supply chain security, with a
multidisciplinary team of faculty and student researchers at South Dakota State
University (SDSU), Dakota State University (DSU) and the University of South
Dakota (USD). The team will work together as part of the new Center for
Understanding and Disrupting the Illicit Economy to discover, understand, and
thwart criminal activity and illegal trade on the dark web and other networks.
“There have been pirates for thousands of years on
the open ocean. In this effort, we’re going after modern day pirates,” says Jon
Kellar, professor in the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering
at South Dakota Mines. Dr. Kellar will lead the new center. “These pirates use
technology exceedingly well, they use the dark web, they use the regular web,
they use social media incredibly effectively, they rely on encrypted
technologies to communicate, and they use crypto currency for transactions.”
One of the challenges the team must overcome is that
criminals deliberately obfuscate their activity. This means it’s often
difficult to tell the difference between legitimate trade and illicit actions
on the internet. Regulators are challenged in implementing controls that stop
illicit activity online but that allow for the flow of legitimate trade.
“Our first goal is to better understand the criminal
networks that are out there, how they communicate and how they operate – then
we can come up with measures to counteract illegal and harmful activity,” says
Kellar.
The creation of the new Center for Understanding
and Disrupting the Illicit Economy is thanks to a $3.9 million grant from the
state Research and Commercialization Council through the South Dakota Governor’s
Research Center completion.
South Dakota Mines has spent several years on
research and development of
anti-counterfeiting technology. The effort has been primarily focused on securing
supply chains to stop counterfeit parts in things like passenger jets and
ending problems of counterfeit drugs from showing up in pharmacies. Mines
researchers also specialize in identifying counterfeit goods, such as bogus
Native American art, which is sometimes manufactured overseas and then labeled
sold as authentic tribally-made works of art.
This illegal practice hurts Native artists in places like South Dakota,
who make a living selling their own authentic work.
The collaborative effort includes:
- Dr. Brian Logue, an SDSU professor and expert in
bioanalytical chemistry. Dr. Logue’s team is focusing on tracking counterfeit
pharmaceutics.
- Dr. Ashley Podhradsky, vice president for research
and economic development at DSU. She will lead a team of cybersecurity experts
who will explore the dark web and other networks used by criminals.
- Dr. C.Y. Jiang at USD is focused on security inks
and the development of new inks that can be printed on authentic parts to track
their path through the supply chain, thus limiting the possibility of
counterfeit goods landing in an end product.
- Dr. Grant Crawford at Mines will join Dr. Kellar to lead
a team of materials science researchers in identifying fake and counterfeit
goods.