FBI chief seeks allies to fight cyber crime
FBI director Robert Mueller warned a gathering of Internet security
specialists on Thursday that the threat of cyber attacks rivals
terrorism as a national security concern.
The only way to combat cyber assaults is for police, intelligence
agencies and private companies to join forces, Mueller said during a
presentation at an annual RSA Conference in San Francisco.
“Technology is moving so rapidly that, from a security perspective,
it is difficult to keep up,” Mueller said. “In the future, we anticipate
that the cyber threat will pose the number one threat to our country.”
It's essential that private corporations and government agencies across
the globe coordinate on cyber crime, Mueller said, in part because
nefarious hackers are already forming alliances.
“We must work together to safeguard our property, to safeguard our
ideas and safeguard our innovation,” Mueller said. “We must use our
connectivity to stop those who seek to do us harm.” Gone are the “good
old days” of teenage boys hacking into websites for fun, Muller said.
Today's hackers are savvy and often work in groups, like traditional
crime families.
Private sector computer security researchers have attributed waves of
cyber assaults to nations out to steal government or business secrets.
“Once isolated hackers have joined forces to form criminal
syndicates,” Mueller said.
Those “syndicates” often operate across borders, posing a particular
problem for government agencies that are constrained by conflicting
justice systems and a lack of coordination with foreign agencies, he
said.
“Borders and boundaries pose no obstacles to hackers, but they
continue to pose obstacles for global law enforcement,” he said.
In a presentation that a subsequent speaker said “really scared the
bejeezus out of us,” Mueller emphasized an overlap between the violent
terrorism the FBI has focused on since September 11 and today's world of
cyber crime.
Terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab in Somalia are
“increasingly cyber savvy,” he said.
Mueller referenced Al-Qaeda's English-language online magazine and
Al-Shabaab's Twitter account, which he says the group uses to recruit
and encourage terrorism.
“They are using the Internet to grow their business and to connect
with like-minded individuals,” he said.
Mueller warned that no company is immune from cyber attack.
AFP
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