From: InfoSec News (isnC4I.ORG)
Date: Thu Apr 05 2001 - 19:49:48 CDT

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http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0401/040501td.htm

By William New
National Journal's Technology Daily
April 5, 2001

The FBI suffers from a high turnover of experts in cybercrime but
continues to get quality people, FBI Director Louis Freeh said
Wednesday.

"There's a bull market" for skilled FBI cyber-crime workers, Freeh
told a World Economic Forum event held at the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce. In order to keep workers in the agency, he said, "we
basically rely on people's patriotism."

That can be difficult when agency employees earning $50,000 to $55,000
interact every day with former FBI workers now making six figures in
the private sector, he said. Fortunately for the agency, the number of
qualified applicants continues to far outnumber the job vacancies.

The number of criminal cases involving computer technology is growing
exponentially, Freeh said, and the top challenge facing the FBI in
working against cybercrime is maintaining the balance between
protecting personal privacy and enforcing laws. He said the same
constitutional balance between privacy and the necessity of a
government to stop crimes should apply to the electronic age.

Governments must cooperate to combat cybercrime, and the FBI is
working to develop global networks, Freeh said. But he added that it
is critical that the private sector--which has much to gain from
security--cooperate globally as well.

Businesses often are reluctant to inform authorities when security
breaches occur because it can hurt their investor confidence, he said.
In a recent survey of businesses, 85 percent said they had experienced
a breach of their security, but only 36 percent had reported it.

The FBI has become a global agency, Freeh said, with 40 offices
worldwide, compared to 17 in 1993. He said that in his lifetime, the
agency went from an almost entirely domestic focus to a worldwide
focus. For example, the agency receives about 100 requests for police
assistance from foreign governments each day.

It is necessary to think globally in order to keep up with
increasingly sophisticated criminals, he said. It also takes a much
greater commitment of resources.

In the past, the FBI could match the technology of the criminal, Freeh
said, but in recent years, it has been difficult to make sure the
agency is on the same 18-month cycle as the technology being deployed.
"It's a very acute problem," he said. "Sometimes, we think we are
barely keeping up."

The FBI operates a center for expertise in computer crime in
Washington that also serves as a warning center for incidents and a
training facility. The center has computer squads that work on local,
state and international levels to develop computer forensic labs, he
said.

Corruption is a significant problem worldwide, and the FBI has trained
5,500 foreign police officers in 26 countries in the democratic rule
of law, Freeh said. They also push governments to pay higher salaries
and give incentives to police prosecutors, judges and others
susceptible to corruption. Freeh said the world is "probably not" more
corrupt than it was 20 years ago.

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