Bots. Worms. Viruses. Spyware. Malware. Hacking. 
Every day, criminals are invading countless homes and offices across
the nation—not by breaking down windows and doors, but by breaking
into laptops, personal computers, and wireless devices via hacks and
bits of malicious code.
The collective impact is staggering. Billions of dollars
are lost every year repairing systems hit by such attacks. Some take
down vital systems, disrupting and sometimes disabling the work of hospitals,
banks, and 9-1-1 services around the country.
Who is behind such attacks? It runs the gamut—from
computer geeks looking for bragging rights…to businesses trying
to gain an upper hand in the marketplace by hacking competitor websites,
from rings of criminals wanting to steal your personal information and
sell it on black markets…to spies and terrorists looking to rob
our nation of vital information or launch cyber strikes.
Today, these computer intrusion cases—counterterrorism, counterintelligence,
and criminal—are the paramount priorities of our cyber program
because of their potential relationship to national security.
Combating the threat. In recent years, we’ve
built a whole new set of technological and investigative capabilities
and partnerships—so we’re as comfortable chasing outlaws
in cyberspace as we are down back alleys and across continents. That
includes:
-
A Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters “to
address cyber crime in a coordinated and cohesive manner”;
-
Specially trained cyber squads at FBI
headquarters and in each of our 56 field offices, staffed with “agents
and analysts who protect against investigate computer intrusions, theft
of intellectual property and personal information, child pornography
and exploitation, and online fraud”;
-
New Cyber Action Teams that “travel
around the world on a moment’s notice to assist in computer intrusion
cases” and that “gather vital intelligence that helps us
identify the cyber crimes that are most dangerous to our national security
and to our economy;”
-
Our 93 Computer Crimes Task Forces nationwide
that “combine state-of-the-art technology and the resources of
our federal, state, and local counterparts”;
-
A growing partnership with other federal agencies,
including the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security,
and others—which share similar concerns and resolve
in combating cyber crime.
