Voices
analyst who leaked secrets about
the National Security Agency’s controversial cyber-spying programs
and then gained refuge in Russia.
But for American law enforcement agencies, the Snowden episode was merely the latest indignity,
landing atop a stack of files in which
Russia has ignored pleas from Washington to help with investigations
and extradite alleged lawbreakers to
the United States.
Speaking last Tuesday at a cybersecurity conference at Fordham
University in New York City, Joseph
Demarest, assistant director of
the FBI’s cyber division, said that
“well over 90 percent” of hackers
are based overseas, making law enforcement dependent upon cooperation with foreign governments.
“We see our approach to this
as global,” he said. “We can’t do it
without foreign partners.”
Demarest did not specify how
much activity can be attributed
to Russia, but other estimates
underscore the scope of the problem. Hackers operating in Russia are responsible for more than
one-third of cyber-crime revenues
worldwide or as much as $3.7 billion a year, according to Mark Galeotti, a professor of global affairs
at New York University.
GERRY
SMITH
HUFFINGTON
08.18.13
In recent weeks, current and former American officials have vented
frustration over their inability to
gain assistance from governments
in countries in which hackers attack
concerns in the United States. In a
What most people don’t
understand is these are
sovereign countries with
laws that are completely
different than ours. They’ve
done nothing illegal in
their country, therefore they
can’t be arrested, and that
makes it really, really difficult.”
rare move, prosecutors last month
publicly named three alleged cyber
criminals who are still at large, with
law enforcement officials telling Reuters this was intended as “a slap at
uncooperative Russian authorities.”
At the Fordham conference last
week, former Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff cited
that case as an example of how other nations — even some that have
signed extradition treaties with the
United States — are failing to crack
down on computer crime.
“What that tells me is we still