Huffington Magazine Issue 62 | Page 29

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