FBI plans cyber crime crackdown, arrests coming in weeks

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/14/cyber-summit-fbi-idUKL1N0O026420140514?feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstat

The FBI is getting more aggressive in pursuing cyber criminals and expects
to announce searches, indictments and multiple arrests over the next
several weeks, the agency's official in charge of combating cyber crime
said on Wednesday.

"There is a philosophy change. If you are going to attack Americans, we are
going to hold you accountable," the FBI's Robert Anderson told the Reuters
Cybersecurity Summit in Washington. "If we can reach out and touch you, we
are going to reach out and touch you."

Anderson said the FBI would show "a much more offensive side" to its cyber
program, which he took over in March.

He cited the previously unreported indictment of Dimitry Belorrossov as an
example of a recent success in the agency's battle against cyber crime.

The Russian national was arrested at an airport in Spain last year and lost
an extradition battle after being accused of running a botnet that attacked
some 7,000 Americans, a case that Anderson said was relatively small
compared to some that are in the FBI's pipeline.

Still, the arrest was one of a few that prompted Russia to warn its
citizens to be careful traveling to countries having extradition treaties
with the United States.

Anderson said the FBI would not be deterred from pressing charges against
suspected cyber criminals who lived in countries that refused to cooperate
in extraditing them.

In the past, the agency has avoided naming overseas suspects in cases where
they could not be extradited in a bid to avoid embarrassing other nations.

"There's a lot of countries that will not extradite. That will not stop us
from pressing forward and charging those individuals and making it public,"
he said.

Anderson said more criminal hackers are going to be arrested under his
watch, rather than turned into sources of knowledge about how the
underground operates.

But there can be exceptions when it comes to national security priorities,
he added.

Most notably, the leader of the LulzSec hacking group, Hector Monsegur, has
had his sentencing delayed more than a half-dozen times as he cooperates
and helps break into high-value intelligence targets overseas, according to
court records.

Anderson declined to say how many such hackers are helping the government
in that way.

Jim Lewis, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International
Studies with strong ties to the intelligence community, estimated that the
FBI might work with about a dozen such hackers, more than in previous years.

Anderson declined to comment on the status of the probe into a weeks-long
cyber attack on retailer Target Corp that came to light in December. The
investigation is being led by the Secret Service.

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