Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
FBI Expands Its Cybercrime Division
November 8, 2012
The FBI is no 90-pound weakling in the fight against cybercrime. Its victories are many and varied, as it has taken down botnets, identity thieves and hackers.
But it wants to get better. So it has announced the Next Generation Cyber Initiative, which will mean hiring more folks and more collaboration with other groups. One thing it (commendably) wants to focus on is attribution, which drives all digital detectives crazy. As the old saying goes, on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.
The ability of hackers to spoof IP addresses and their reliance on proxies makes attribution tough. More and more, computer scientists are working beside FBI agents in an effort to extract the digital signatures of hackers from mountains of malicious code.
The FBI is now sharing information with the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency as part of the National Cyber Investigative Task Force.
I'm glad to see the turf wars diminishing. Hollywood loves to portray the arrogant FBI agent who comes to a local crime scene and announces, "I'm in charge." Where hackers are concerned, it too often feels like they are in charge. Working together may be far more productive than going it alone.
Listen to the Podcast
