FBI Sees Rise in Computer Crime

WASHINGTON(Reuters) – Computer spying and theft of personal information haverisen notably in the past year, costing tens of millions of dollars andthreatening U.S. security, the FBI’s cyber division head said onWednesday.

FBI Assistant Director Shawn Henry told reporters thatorganized-crime groups are drawn by the ease of reaching millions ofpotential victims.

He said as many as two dozen countries have taken an "aggressiveinterest" in penetrating the networks of U.S. companies and governmentagencies.

He declined to specify countries, but U.S. intelligence agencieshave voiced concern over Russia and China’s abilities to electronicallyspy on the United States and disrupt U.S. computer networks.

As one possible example of Russia’s electronic spying prowess,Georgia accused Moscow in August of conducting "cyber warfare" to shutdown Georgian government websites at the same time as it carried out amilitary offensive.

U.S. federal agents are stepping up efforts to fight computer crime,and working with foreign counterparts where the rising wave of computerattacks has awakened international interest, Henry said.

"Over the past year the malicious activity has become much more prevalent," Henry said. "The threat continues to increase."

An attack method growing in popularity is "botnets," in whichmalicious software spreads via viruses to computers of unwittingindividuals and companies forms networks that can then be used for datatheft or shutting down a system, Henry said.

Another method, "Spearfishing," when hackers get a copy of acompany’s e-mail list, then send out official-looking requests foremployee personal information, has also been a growing problem, he said.

He said computer crime has invaded Wall Street, but had nothing to do with the current financial system crises.

Individual investment companies have, however, lost tens of millionsof dollars through "pump and dump" schemes in which criminalspenetrated multiple client accounts and used them to run up the priceof low-liquidity stocks and dump them from their own accounts.

Internet Crime Complaint Center, which the FBI helps run, hasrecorded more than 1 million complaints since its founding in 2000 andnumbers are now running about 18,000 to 20,000 per month, Henry said.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)