FBI streamlines operations

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,,NAV47_STO66417,00.html

By DAN VERTON 
December 10, 2001
 
The FBI is taking steps to eliminate duplication of effort in its
cybercrime investigation programs, rolling 11 existing units into four
new divisions.
 
A new Cybercrime Division will be integrated with the bureau's
Criminal Investigation Division. Ruben Garcia Jr., the new executive
assistant director for criminal investigations, will lead the effort.  
The three other divisions that will manage the bureau's major areas of
responsibility will be Counterterrorism/Counterintelligence, Law
Enforcement Services and Administration.

The changes are the first step in a larger U.S. Department of Justice
reorganization that's designed to help federal law enforcement
officials wage the war against terrorism more efficiently.

The new FBI cybercrime division may be good news for U.S. companies,
said Harris Miller, president of the Arlington, Va.-based Information
Technology Association of America. The National Infrastructure
Protection Center (NIPC) and the FBI's InfraGard program "do not have
the investigative focus" that's needed, he said. InfraGard is a
cybercrime security initiative designed to improve cooperation between
federal law enforcement officials and the private sector.

"NIPC is more centered on gathering information and disseminating it
to help head off possible cybercrimes. InfraGard is centered on
educating businesses that do not understand the dangers of and
appropriate actions to protect against cybercrimes," Miller said.

There has been no specific mention of what, if any, changes might be
made to the role of the NIPC, which is an arm of the FBI. But Ron
Dick, the organization's director, has repeatedly dismissed calls by
critics to make the NIPC independent of the FBI. The bureau is the
only government agency that has the legal and constitutional authority
to conduct certain activities that would benefit the NIPC, Dick said.

"Looking at the government's infrastructure-protection efforts from a
legal authorities perspective, you can better see why the NIPC is
housed within the Department of Justice at the FBI," said Dick,
speaking in September at the annual InfoWarCon conference in
Washington. "Being inside the FBI gives the NIPC access to law
enforcement, intelligence, counterintelligence and open-source
information that for privacy and civil rights reasons is unavailable
in its aggregate to any other federal agency."




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