The director of the U.S. Secret Service shed the trademark black sunglasses and earpiece yesterday to address local law enforcement officials and students at the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology.
Ralph Basham shared stories from his 28 years of experience in the service, and he described the changing role of the agency in a post-Sept. 11 environment.
The movement of the Secret Service from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Homeland Security is only one of many changes that Basham has seen during his tenure.
"When I came on the job, they offered me a gun, a badge and a horse. Nowadays, it's only a badge and a computer," Basham said.
The protection of the president and prominent political leaders is only a small part of the service's work.
"What you see is only the tip of the iceberg," he said.
Basham recounted President Bush's surprise trip to Baghdad last Thanksgiving.
The Secret Service had to sneak the president off of his Texas ranch, fly him on Air Force One to Baghdad for a two-hour event with troops and return him to the ranch without letting anyone know what had happened.
With Air Force One back in the air en route to Bush's ranch, one of the reporters accompanying the president had to convince a skeptical news team on the ground in Texas that the president was actually in the air flying back from Baghdad and not having dinner with his family.
Basham also spoke to students about the role of technology and research in the Secret Service.
"We see an insatiable appetite in those who gain access to the data and networks and systems that we rely upon," Basham said.
He said that the Secret Service's job is not only to protect political leaders but also to protect the U.S. currency -- both physical and electronic.
Basham detailed the establishment of the new Electronic Crime Task Force that was set up to address cybercrime.
"Information is the new world currency, and likewise it must be protected," he said. "We see criminals migrate from the industrial age into the technological age. We must migrate ahead of them."
He went on to speak about Operation Firewall, a successful ECTF mission in which 30 individuals from eight states and six countries were caught committing cybercrimes.
Attendees were interested to learn about the less visible roles of the Secret Service.
Tobi Palmer, a graduate student in the Department of Criminology and Department of Social Work, found it interesting that the Secret Service also employed a technical task force.
Basham was the keynote speaker for the unveiling of a portrait honoring Jerry Lee -- the man for whom the Department of Criminology is named.
Laurie Robinson, the department's director, commented that the "most important thing for a program like this is to bring in speakers who are leaders in the practice of criminal justice."
