Fergie's Tech Blog

FBI: Several Nations Eyeing U.S. Cyber Targets

Grant Gross writes on PC World:

About two dozen nations have developed cyber-attack capabilities and have their eyes on targets inside the U.S. government or businesses, the top cybercrime law enforcement official in the U.S. said.

"There are countries who have an interest in obtaining information from the U.S., in terms of the electronic theft of data," said Shawn Henry, the assistant director in charge of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Division.

Henry declined to name countries, but he called organized attacks on U.S. cyber targets a "significant threat" during a press conference Wednesday. Over the past year, cyber attacks against U.S. targets have become increasingly sophisticated, said Henry, appointed to the top post in the Cyber Division in September.

The FBI has thousands of open investigations into cybercrime and organized cyber attacks, said Henry, who's investigated cybercrime for the FBI on and off for the past nine years. The FBI has also tracked terrorist groups that use cybercrime such as identity theft to fund their operations, he added.

posted by Fergie @ 10/15/2008 09:44:00 PM