FBI agents lack necessary skills to investigate cyber espionage cases: Report
April 28th, 2011 - 12:10 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Apr 28(ANI): A U.S. Justice Department report has found that many agents attached to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s elite cyber unit lack the skills to investigate cases of cyberespionage and other computerized attacks.
According to the report, the US recorded 5,499 known intrusions into its government computer systems in 2008 alone - a 40 percent jump from 2007.
Investigating these cases falls largely on the FBI’s National Cyber Investigative Joint Task force, which also includes representatives from 18 different intelligence agencies.
However, in interviews with 36 field agents in 10 of the FBI’s 56 field offices nationwide, 13 agents, or more than a third, “reported that they lacked the networking and counterintelligence expertise to investigate national security [computer] intrusion cases.”
Five of the agents said “they did not think they were able or qualified” to investigate such cases, the report said.
The report does not indicate whether the 36 field agents who were interviewed are a representative sampling of the FBI’s cyber unit, the Christian Science Monitor reports. (ANI)
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