HW #3

Review Done by Jarred Stuczynski

“FBI to Get More Cyber Crime Agents”

December 20, 2011

Article written by Matthew Schwartz

This article related to cyber protection goes into depth concerning cyber safety in the United States. According to the draft of the Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill for 2012 the FBI will be seeing an increased funding for a number of different types of investigations including, computer intrusions and cyber investigations. This is extremely important for the FBI to receive because “the FBI is in a unique position to counter cyber threats, as it is the only agency with the statutory authority, expertise, and ability to combine counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal resources to neutralize, mitigate, and disrupt illegal computer-supported operations domestically," according to the House committee's appropriations bill. The FBI will be granted its $166.5 million, which is an increase of 13% from 2011. This increase in funding will result in 42 new positions, including 14 new special agents with cyber expertise. The FBI has a total of 30,000 people in cyber protection. The FBI now has cyber squads in all of its 56 offices across the country. As well as 1,000 trained cyber agents, analysts, and digital forensic examiners. There will also be an additional $5 million set aside for training new FBI agents to help in its field of cyber safety. Finally although it has not been done yet, the FBI is being encouraged to expand its FBI cyber agents into eastern European police services. This would be a good idea for the FBI because a lot of the cyber threats that have occurred in the United States over the years have been traced back to Eastern Europe.

            I think that an increase in funding for the FBI’s cyber protection program is a good investment to make. With technology rapidly increasing and the business world becoming more and more popular over the internet, cyber safety for U.S. companies and government facilities is extremely important. If information gets in the hands of the wrong person/people this could be extremely harmful and could cause a serious threat to the United States.