Good
morning. It's great to be here once again. At
least when you get invited back, you know you
must not have been too awful. Lately, I find
myself behind a podium more often than I ever
expected when I began my career. Not because
I'm closer to the end of my career, it's because,
in the past, we in the FBI didn't speak to outside
groups very often. We did our job of going after
criminals and that was that. But not anymore.
We are talking to outside groups more often
because we recognize that, more than ever, protecting
the United States requires all of us to work
together.
Last
time I spoke, I talked about the FBI's new priorities
and how the Bureau has changed its focus and
its organization to prevent terrorist attacks.
Today, I want to speak more broadly about the
transnational threats facing your companies
and how they affect America's economic security.
These emerging threats require a new kind of
strategy from us in the FBI, and each of you,
your organizations, and the clients you represent,
are a vital part of our mission to protect the
United States.
Nearly
a century ago, Americans faced new and growing
threats from crimes that crossed county and
state lines. The FBI was created to address
these new threats. Today, with jet travel, faxes,
cell phones, and particularly the Internet,
it is a rare case that does not cross national
and international jurisdictions.
As
business has gone global, unfortunately so has
crime. The threats we face today have an increasingly
international dimension - from telemarketing
fraud and identity theft, to computer viruses
and corporate espionage, to the trafficking
of weapons or human beings, and terrorism.
International
terrorist groups continue to evolve and threaten
our economy and our lives in new ways. For al-Qaeda,
assaulting our economy is a way to destroy America
and all that it represents. Their targets include
skyscrapers, shopping malls, power plants, railways,
and cities like New York, Las Vegas, and Los
Angeles. The global presence of American-owned
businesses everywhere have created a world of
targets for our enemies.
We are also increasingly threatened by criminal
enterprises that cross borders and oceans. Organized
crime has diversified into telemarketing fraud,
stock manipulation, and cyber crimes, and they
are very much an international force.
We
are seeing a convergence of threats: organized
crime laundering money for drug groups; drug
groups selling weapons to terrorists; terrorists
engaged in cigarette smuggling or credit card
fraud to raise money for their operations. And
all of them exploiting the Internet in one way
or another.
Last
year in Charlotte, North Carolina, the FBI's
local Joint Terrorism Task Force assisted in
a multi-agency operation, known as "Smokescreen."
Working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police, the task force linked cigarette smugglers
to a terrorist cell. Its members were found
guilty of visa and marriage fraud, plus a series
of financial crimes committed to raise money
for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
To Al-Qaeda, your customers' credit card data
or your million dollar trade secrets are potential
funding for attacks. This convergence means
that the private sector must be engaged in security
efforts and information sharing like never before
and in areas that once seemed remote from business
concerns.
This
is certainly true of the evolving threat from
espionage against the United States. We are
deeply concerned about the potential for an
agent of a hostile group or nation to produce
or use weapons of mass destruction. We are also
alert to the potential for a foreign power to
penetrate the U.S. Intelligence Community, to
target government supported R&D, and to
compromise Critical National Assets.
We
are seeing a rise in incidences of economic
espionage. The increasing value of proprietary
information and new technologies have combined
to increase both the motives and the opportunities
for these crimes. Theft of trade secrets and
critical technologies is costing the U.S. economy
upwards of $250 billion per year. The counterfeiting
of U.S. goods overseas costs at least the same
amount.
The players in the espionage game have diversified.
The number of countries engaged in espionage
against the U.S. has actually risen since the
end of the Cold War, and we are not dealing
exclusively with intelligence agents. Today,
the threat can come from university students
or business executives. According to one study,
about 75 percent of economic espionage cases
involve company insiders.
In
the cyber area, we continue to see a dramatic
a rise in computer-related crimes, such as denial
of service attacks, and in traditional crimes
that have migrated online, such as identity
theft, copyright infringement, and child pornography.
Thanks
to our increasingly interconnected world, isolated
individuals can now launch attacks that cost
billions of dollars and impact millions of people.
A powerful computer virus can be launched across
a global electronic network connecting hundreds
of millions of people, and set off a worldwide
chain reaction costing millions or billions
of dollars in economic loss.
We are also seeing increased trafficking in
personal information databases on U.S. citizens,
manipulated on-line brokerage accounts, and
fraudulent electronic payments. In some cases,
lone hackers or small groups are behind the
attacks, but many more assaults are from organized
international groups, often in Eastern Europe.
Last
spring, a United States scientific research
station in Antarctica reported to us that their
systems had been hacked into and their data
corrupted. They sought our help.
Normally,
we send our Agents to the scene to investigate.
But due to sub-freezing temperatures, no aircraft
would be able to land in Antarctica for months.
But working from a distance, our investigators
were able to trace the source of the intrusion
to a server outside Pittsburgh. From there,
we identified two Romanian suspects. With the
help of the Romanian authorities, they were
arrested outside Bucharest shortly thereafter.
Successes like these are due in large part to
the FBI's efforts to reorganize around our top
three priorities: counterterrorism, counterintelligence,
and cyber. We have dedicated new resources and
built up our capabilities in these areas. We
will continue to use our resources strategically,
focusing on areas where we bring something special
to the table. But these changes are only the
beginning. Threats continue to evolve, and the
FBI must continue to evolve. If we are to address
growing threats, the FBI must build up our capabilities
to address crimes that cross borders, and we
must remain as agile and adaptive, as the global
networks and organizations that threaten us.
The
age of global threats has moved the Bureau into
an age of global partnerships. The clear-cut
divisions of responsibility and jurisdiction
that once existed between agencies - and even
between the United States and other countries
- are becoming less and less relevant. How can
we defeat international terrorism, for example,
without the help of countries such as Great
Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and
Kenya?
That's
why the FBI, like many institutions, has gone
global. In 1940, we established our first international
office - what is called a Legal Attaché
or Legat. Today, we have 45 Legal Attachés
around the world. Not only in cities like London,
Paris and Rome. But also in places like Islamabad,
Riyadh, Moscow and Beijing.
Increasingly, these Legats are helping to stop
crime and terror from being exported to our
shores. FBI Agents today are working with counterparts
in places like Romania and Russia to track down
cyber criminals. They are joining forces with
the Hungarian National Police to tackle organized
crime syndicates. They are gathering intelligence
in Iraq and Afghanistan and hunting down terrorists
in concert with partners in countries like Pakistan,
Morocco, and Indonesia. We currently have 44
FBI Agents in Baghdad conducting interviews,
investigating bombings, and exploiting intelligence.
Last
May, after nine Americans lost their lives in
the bombing in Riyadh, the Saudi government
allowed the FBI to send a large forensic team
to assist in their investigation. The result
was an unprecedented cooperation. One reason
was because the FBI had trained more than 100
Saudi police in the National Academy. We were
using the same methods of evidence collection
and the same terminology. As they told us, "We
were taught together, now we can work together."
This is going on all over.
In an age where attacks on our economy come
from the four corners of the globe, from the
streets of Detroit to the shores of Yemen, the
FBI must be able to call upon a full range of
capabilities. We must combine the tools of law
enforcement, with the tools of intelligence
to identify and disable threats. We must fight
crime even as we roll up terrorist cells, using
the same investigative capabilities to root
out corporate fraud that we use to catch criminals
wiring funds to terrorists. We must work locally,
but think globally.
And
we must apply our unique strengths even as we
share them and blend them with those of other
agencies. The war on terrorism prompted legal
and cultural changes that have enhanced our
ability to work together. First among them,
is that we no longer have legal obstacles to
coordination and information-sharing between
law enforcement and the intelligence agencies.
The walls have been removed and now law enforcement
and intelligence can coordinate their approach
to terrorist targets.
We have also seen the collapse of the cultural
and operational wall between the FBI and the
CIA. There is growing operational integration
between the two agencies. In the Terrorist Threat
Integration Center, known as "T-TIC,"
FBI and CIA analysts work shoulder-to-shoulder
to "connect the dots" of incoming
intelligence information.
In
addition, the FBI's Counterterrorism Division
pours over intelligence information. Once this
information is pulled together and coordinated,
there are daily discussions with the Department
of Homeland Security and the U.S. Intelligence
Community.
Recently,
this partnership resulted in the threat level
being raised from yellow to orange. A number
of factors went into that decision: 1) an increase
in threat reporting suggesting the possibility
of large-scale Al-Qaeda attacks against the
United States; 2) recent attacks in Saudi Arabia
and Turkey; 3) information indicating potential
threats to the U.S. over the holidays and beyond;
and 4) information indicating continued Al-Qaeda
interest in carrying out airline attacks. On
Friday the threat level went back to yellow,
but we still must remain vigilant and alert!
Every bit as important as our federal partnerships,
are the FBI's partnerships in the private sector.
Just as the days are gone when law enforcement
agencies acted independently and kept information
to themselves, the days are also gone when businesses
can stand alone.
Within
the past two years, the FBI has established
unprecedented liaison with the private sector.
For example, when reporting indicated a possible
Al-Qaeda threat to U.S. financial institutions,
the FBI alerted the financial and banking sectors
and worked to ensure that needed information
flowed between the Federal Government and the
financial services industry. They have also
helped us, track down sources of terrorist funding.
To
coordinate these efforts, the FBI leads Joint
Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) in each of our
field offices. Their purpose is to investigate
threats and with the SACs, Chiefs, and Sheriffs,
share information with the public and private
sector. Police as well as the public/private
sectors are the eyes and ears in the fight against
terrorism. No one can do it alone.
We are making progress, but we will continue
to need your help in the future. Terrorists
cannot hide forever in remote corners of the
world. They have to interact with society, particularly
if they intend to strike inside the United States.
They will go shopping and set up bank accounts.
They will rent cars. They will buy equipment,
communicate with fellow operatives, or try to
cross borders - all of these are opportunities
to identify and stop terrorists from doing harm.
And everyone can play a role by reporting suspicious
activities to their local FBI field office or
JTTF or police departments.
Not
only are private sector partnerships necessary
to prevent terrorism, they are also essential
for our fight against other transnational threats.
We can and must work together to protect your
proprietary information and America's Critical
National Assets.
I
encourage each of you and your companies to
establish a relationship with your local FBI
office or police department. If your organization
is not already part of an InfraGard chapter
- join. Look into attending the FBI Citizen's
Academy at your local field office. These relationships
will pay high dividends in the future - for
your mission and for ours.
We understand how important it is for the FBI
to get information to your businesses when there
are threats. If we learn that a terrorist is
targeting a local power plant or a hacker is
going after your company, someone from the FBI
will make sure you have the details. It is up
to us to help you understand what to look for,
to share strategies, to work with you to harden
targets, and most importantly, to share threat
information. If you have questions, concerns,
ideas, or issues, please do not hesitate to
contact us. Cooperation is key to success against
future transnational threats and terrorism.
In
closing, the increasing globalization of crime
and emergence of transnational threats will
continue to bring new challenges to business
and the law enforcement and Intelligence Communities.
In partnership with you, we are committed to
protecting your companies, protecting our economy,
and protecting this great nation in the years
to come. Your philosophy should be nearly the
same as our philosophy:
(1)
Know your domain;
(2) Identify the threat and vulnerabilities;
(3) Partner up;
(4) Use sophisticated operations to protect
your critical assets; and
(5) Neutralize the goals and objectives of those
who wish to do us harm.
In
partnerships we can protect your interests and
this great country we love.
Thank
you ISMA for inviting me back.