FBI: From G-Men to G4-Men?

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45071,00.html

By Declan McCullagh 
2:00 a.m. July 7, 2001 PDT  
      
WASHINGTON -- It turns out that Robert Mueller, President Bush's pick
to revive the FBI's ailing image, has plenty of experience prosecuting
computer crime.

This week Bush nominated Mueller, 56, to succeed Louis Freeh -- whose
eight years as FBI director was marked by a series of embarrassing
scandals including the murders at Ruby Ridge, the Robert Hanssen spy
scandal and misplaced documents in the Timothy McVeigh case.

Freeh was a lifelong East Coast fed. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey,
he graduated from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and
won acclaim for his work against Sicilian gangsters who used pizza
parlors to sell illicit drugs.

Mueller, by contrast, is more West Coast.

He started his legal career at a San Francisco law firm in 1973,
worked in San Francisco as a federal prosecutor for six years and is
currently the U.S. Attorney for Northern California. Mueller has also
done stints in Boston and Washington, D.C.

"He really knows the crime issues in the (tech) industry," said George
Kennedy, the district attorney for Santa Clara County who has worked
with Mueller over the last three years. "He will be a good man to have
at the head of the FBI for those types of crimes."

After moving back to San Francisco in 1999, Mueller created the
Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property unit in San Jose. The group
is credited with prosecuting cases that include alleged hackers
Benjamin Troy Breuninger ("Kon"), Jerome T. Heckenkamp ("MagicFX") and
Max Ray Butler ("Max Vision").

In May, Freeh announced he would retire, two years before his 10-year
term was over. In the tech industry, Freeh was best known for the
FBI's Carnivore surveillance system, his dogged opposition to
encryption products and his support for more wiretap authority for
agents.


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