Cyber Crime A Distant #3 Priority for FBI

An anonymous reader writes "A reading of the Justice Department's 2008 budget justification to Congress for the FBI indicates the agency is dedicating about 5.5 percent of its field agents to combating cyber crime, the FBI's stated Number Three priority, The Washington Post reports. Take away the agents dedicated to catching child predators online — a program that accounts for the vast majority of the department's prosecutorial victories — and about 3.6 percent of the FBI's agents are dedicated to cyber crime, the report notes. From the story: 'If the FBI's third most-important priority claims just over 3.5 percent of its active agents, how many agents and FBI resources are dedicated to the remaining Top Ten priorities?'"

Comments

It's not important yet...

[hobo sapiens]

It's not important yet...kind of like airport security before 911.

After China pwns all of the DoD's sensitive data, you can bet they'll pump all kinds of money at it.

Re:It's not important yet...

[vishbar]

Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle? Perhaps they view cybercrime as a division that you don't necessarily just throw agents at. They may only have a specific number of agents with the specific training necessary to prosecute cybercrime cases.

I'm just saying that perhaps looking at simple agent ratios wouldn't necessarily be an accurate reflection of the amount of attention that cybercrime receives. The other jobs may be more man-power intensive, even though they may be lower down on the priority list.

Lobbyists

[Bonker]

Everyone knows that the FBI's most important priority, and the largest percentage of their manpower is devoted to lobbying congress for more power.

Re:Lobbyists

[dascritch]

and 2 agents are running after UFOs, 11th Top Priority

Whaaaa?

[Tablizer]

'If the FBI's third most-important priority claims just over 3.5 percent of its active agents, how many agents and FBI resources are dedicated to the remaining Top Ten priorities?'"

I am not sure what you want. This reminds me of a conversation I once had with a user:

User: Why didn't you add feature X in this revision?

Me: If you remember, we sent out a feature ballot, and X was not voted high.

User: That's because you put it toward the end of the ballot list, where people didn't see it.

Me: We can't put everything at the top of the list.

User: Why not?

Me: (I fake a beeper call and leave)

X Files

[Rank_Tyro]

What priority are the X-Files?

Re:X Files

[barry_the_bogan]

Last I heard, they just had two agents working on them.

Only on Slashdot

[the_skywise]

Will you see support of websites like thepiratesbay.org and disdain for the RIAA and MPAA and complaints that the government is trying to monitor internet traffic and watch what we're doing and then turn around and complain that the FBI isn't taking cybercrime seriously...

No prizes for guessing what the top priority is

[clarkkent09]

I'm sure #1 is taking up about 90% of the agents or thereabouts (no it doesn't say so in the document, far too long and too pdf for me to read or even search through the whole thing). Because terrorist attacks are soooooo much more scary than the other 9. I think we should bump it up to 100% and just forget about every other problem except for those darn terrorists.

Priority 1 - Protect the United States from terrorist attack
Priority 2 - Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and
espionage
Priority 3 - Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and hightechnology
crimes
Priority 4 - Combat public corruption at all levels
Priority 5 - Protect civil rights;
Priority 6 - Combat transnational and national criminal organizations and enterprises
Priority 7 - Combat major white-collar crime
Priority 8 - Combat significant violent crime
Priority 9 - Support federal, state, local and international partners
Priority 10 - Upgrade technology to successfully perform the FBI's mission

Re:No prizes for guessing what the top priority is

[Kamineko]

Priority 11 - Serve the Public Trust
Priority 12 - Protect the Innocent
Priority 13 - Uphold the Law

No, wait!

My experience with the FBI's cybercrime division

[sammy baby]

A few years ago I had the pleasure of attending a "CEO's dinner" at a regional tech trade show. (I'm not a CEO, I just happened to work for the meetings major sponsor.) The majority of attendees were the type of people who wear very expensive watches and attend regional tech conferences and use words like "synergy" a lot.

The keynote speech was given by an FBI special agent, and was about cybercrime (I hate that word). He talked about where major risks came from, talked up InfraGard a bit, and generally gave common sense advice to the CEO types there. I remember thinking, "This guy can't really be a computer security expert, can he?"

At one point, I zoned out, and when I tuned back in I thought he was using a Latino name repeatedly in a context I didn't understand. So I glanced up at his powerpoint slide, then back at him, and then back at the slide, until I made the connection.

He was talking about "warez," but he was pronouncing it "Juarez."

I found it very hard to take him seriously after that.

And how is this a problem???

[rwyoder]

With the level of incompetence of law enforcement agencies with respect to anything technical, why on earth would you want cybercrime at a high priority??? The less time they spend on it, the less damage they can do.

Re:My experience with the FBI's cybercrime divisio

[jollyreaper]

He was talking about "warez," but he was pronouncing it "Juarez."

I found it very hard to take him seriously after that. But that's how the illegals are getting in, those damn tubes run right under the Rio Grande. Go to Juarez's site and you can hop a tube straight into the US of A. It's not like a dumptruck! It's a series of tubes! Soylent Green is made of sherbet!