Federal Bureau of Investigation
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[edit] Overview
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) principal mission is to investigate criminal activity and defend the [[security] of the United States. It has identified 10 priority enforcement areas, including cybercrime.[1] IP enforcement is included in the cybercrime area, but it is ranked 5th out of FBI’s 6 cybercrime priorities.[2]
[edit] Protection intellectual property
FBI conducts investigations of IP-related criminal activity, including infringement of trademark and copyright law, as well as theft of trade secrets. Within its IP enforcement efforts, FBI’s priorities are, in order, trade secret theft, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and signal theft, and one of FBI’s IP enforcement goals is for its field offices to initiate IP investigations that affect public health and safety.
FBI's Cyber Division oversees the agency’s IP enforcement efforts even though not all of its IP investigations are cyber-related. This division also conducts investigations of computer intrusions and child pornography.
IP-related investigations are primarily carried out in FBI’s 56 field offices.
[edit] Cybercrime enforcement
A single unit within the Cyber Division, called the Cyber Crime Fraud Unit, has operational and management oversight for all of FBI’s cybercrime activities.
[edit] Intelligence activities
The key intelligence functions of the FBI relate to counterterrorism and counterintelligence. In the wake of the September 2001 attacks, the FBI was strongly criticized for failing to focus on the terrorist threat, for failing to collect and strategically analyze intelligence, and for failing to share intelligence with other intelligence agencies (as well as among various FBI components).
Subsequently, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III introduced a number of reforms to create a better and more professional intelligence effort in an agency that has always emphasized law enforcement. The former mission has grown enormously in importance since September 2001, many new analysts have been hired, and the FBI has been reorganized in an attempt to ensure that intelligence functions are not subordinated to traditional law enforcement efforts. Most importantly, law enforcement information is now expected to be forwarded to other intelligence agencies for use in all-source products.
Congress has expressed concern about the overall effectiveness of these reforms and with the FBI’s widely criticized information technology acquisition efforts.
[edit] References
- ↑ As of 2006, FBI had 10 priority enforcement areas. The first 8 in order of importance are to: (1) protect the U.S. from terrorist attack; (2) protect the U.S. against foreign intelligence operations and espionage; (3) protect the U.S. against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes; (4) combat public corruption at all levels; (5) protect civil rights; (6) combat transnational and national criminal organizations and enterprises; (7) combat major white collar crime; and (8) combat significant violent crime. In addition, FBI aims to (9) support federal, state, local, and international partners; and (10) upgrade technology to successfully perform FBI’s mission.
- ↑ Cyber Division’s six priorities are, in order of importance: (1) computer intrusions involving counterterrorism, (2) computer intrusions involving counterintelligence, (3) other computer intrusions, (4) innocent images (child pornography), (5) IP enforcement, and (6) Internet fraud. In April 2006, the Cyber Division lowered the priority of IP enforcement to 5th rank and elevated the priority of child pornography to 4th rank. Despite this decrease in stated priority, Cyber Division officials said that IP investigations remain a major focus of their program, particularly investigations targeting health and safety issues.
