Report: FBI must improve cyber capability

The FBI must strengthen its intelligence gathering and information sharing capabilities to better counter complex cyber threats, a congressional commission determined in a report published Wednesday.

The FBI 9/11 Review Commission said the bureau has greatly improved its overall crime-fighting capacity since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But the face of crime and terrorism is rapidly changing, and the FBI must adapt quickly.

{mosads}“This imbalance needs urgently to be addressed to meet growing and increasingly complex national security threats, including from adaptive and increasingly tech-savvy terrorists, more brazen computer hackers and more technically capable global cyber syndicates,” the report said.

The congressionally mandated review was conducted by two former U.S. government officials and one terrorism expert. The commission visited FBI offices at home and abroad over 14 months to receive briefings on the organization’s work.

The FBI has traditionally structured itself geographically, with local field offices handling crimes in their territory. The setup is poorly suited to battle cyber crime, the commission concluded.

“The cyber threat does not,” the report said, “respect geographic boundaries. It “presents unique challenges” for the bureau, it added.

The FBI recognizes that geographical boundaries are outdated, according to the report, and has restructured its cyber units “according to cyber intrusion sets.”

The strategy “was designed, among other reasons, to overcome the previously identified lack of strategic coordination among and between the field offices on cyber national security threats,” according to the report.

The FBI has notably stepped up its cyber focus.

Director James Comey has publicly promoted the bureau’s cyber headquarters, called “CyWatch,” which coordinates with the CIA and the National Security Agency and is located in a top-secret location.

The bureau also recently issued a record $3 million reward for an elusive Russian cyber crook.

But the bureau has a ways to go, the commission concluded.

It described the FBI’s “fragmented engagement” with private companies on cyber threats.

“There is still wide room for improvement in the Bureau’s sharing practices with local law enforcement and the private sector,” it said.