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The FBI places cyber attacks among its top three priorities, said Mark Mershon, assistant director in charge of the New York City field office.
In fact, prevention is so important the crime-fighting agency will negotiate its normally strict employment standards for those with cyber backgrounds, he said.

Mershon gave a keynote address at the International Security Conference and Exposition (ISC) East and InfoSecurity 2006, which were held jointly Tuesday at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.
Behind terrorism and corporate espionage, cyber crime is high on the list of problems the FBI focuses on. Mershon said that although he considers cyber crime a relatively new means of carrying out traditional crimes, he said it requires different skill sets to investigate.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) receives 18,000 complaints a month, he said. They range from individuals reporting spam to reports of massive breaches and hackers accessing companies’ user codes and passwords to access credit reports.

The one involving Ford and Experian in 2002 resulted in a $15 million loss and the arrest of at least 17 subjects in several countries, he said. Mershon said that private corporations’ reluctance to report hackers and security breaches slows investigations. Many companies are afraid to report security events because the potential for negative publicity, and loss of goodwill, income and shareholder value can pose a greater financial threat, he said.

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