The threat of cybersecurity attacks from organised criminals, terrorists and foreign governments is increasing, an FBI official warned on Wednesday.
There are a "couple dozen" countries interested in breaching US networks, said Shawn Henry, assistant director of the FBI Cyber Division. However, he declined to list any specific countries.
The attempted attacks on US networks are "increasingly sophisticated" and "the amount of information that has been stolen is significant", Henry said.
In particular, the use of botnets is continuing to increase, he said, while companies have lost tens of millions of dollars from 'pump and dump' schemes in which criminals buy and sell stocks with other people's account information, harvested online.
"A lot of the financial loss we see [due to] organised [crime] has increased because of the greater sense of money to be made; the awareness of the access to greater rewards," Henry said.
There is also the perception that the risks of prosecution for cybercrime are relatively minimal, he said.
Henry said that, just five years ago, "in terms of judicial action, this was seen to be almost juvenile and more disruptive", rather than as a serious problem. However, he said judges, law-enforcement bodies and US Congress have all come to recognise cybersecurity as a priority in recent years.
President Bush in January established the Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative, of which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken the lead, although it is up to the FBI to investigate any discovered cyberattacks.
The DHS has been criticised over its leadership on cybersecurity matters, but Henry said his experience with the DHS has been positive so far.
Henry said the FBI has made significant progress over the past couple of years in developing partnerships with foreign law-enforcement organisations to crack down on cybercrime, including partnerships with the UK, Turkey, Russia, Canada and Romania.
The FBI has made more than 90 arrests this year, Henry said, after stationing cybersecurity agents in Romania to crack down on cybercrime against financial institutions and retail networks.
"We've been able to convey that we're in a global economy and, more often than not, there's a victim in their country as well," he said.
The FBI was recently revealed to be operating an online forum called DarkMarket, as part of a sting operation against criminals buying and selling stolen identities and credit-card information online.
Henry said infiltrations and electronic surveillance of illegal activity are preferred over taking reactive action against cybercrime because it creates the "opportunity to ultimately dismantle the organisation [responsible]".
