Good morning.
It's great to be here once again. At least when you get invited
back, you know you must not have been too awful. Lately, I find
myself behind a podium more often than I ever expected when I began
my career. Not because I'm closer to the end of my career, it's
because, in the past, we in the FBI didn't speak to outside groups
very often. We did our job of going after criminals and that was
that. But not anymore. We are talking to outside groups more often
because we recognize that, more than ever, protecting the United
States requires all of us to work together.
Last time I
spoke, I talked about the FBI's new priorities and how the Bureau
has changed its focus and its organization to prevent terrorist
attacks. Today, I want to speak more broadly about the transnational
threats facing your companies and how they affect America's economic
security. These emerging threats require a new kind of strategy
from us in the FBI, and each of you, your organizations, and the
clients you represent, are a vital part of our mission to protect
the United States.
Nearly a century
ago, Americans faced new and growing threats from crimes that crossed
county and state lines. The FBI was created to address these new
threats. Today, with jet travel, faxes, cell phones, and particularly
the Internet, it is a rare case that does not cross national and
international jurisdictions.
As business
has gone global, unfortunately so has crime. The threats we face
today have an increasingly international dimension - from telemarketing
fraud and identity theft, to computer viruses and corporate espionage,
to the trafficking of weapons or human beings, and terrorism.
International
terrorist groups continue to evolve and threaten our economy and
our lives in new ways. For al-Qaeda, assaulting our economy is a
way to destroy America and all that it represents. Their targets
include skyscrapers, shopping malls, power plants, railways, and
cities like New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. The global presence
of American-owned businesses everywhere have created a world of
targets for our enemies.
We are also increasingly threatened by criminal enterprises that
cross borders and oceans. Organized crime has diversified into telemarketing
fraud, stock manipulation, and cyber crimes, and they are very much
an international force.
We are seeing
a convergence of threats: organized crime laundering money for drug
groups; drug groups selling weapons to terrorists; terrorists engaged
in cigarette smuggling or credit card fraud to raise money for their
operations. And all of them exploiting the Internet in one way or
another.
Last year in
Charlotte, North Carolina, the FBI's local Joint Terrorism Task
Force assisted in a multi-agency operation, known as "Smokescreen."
Working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the task
force linked cigarette smugglers to a terrorist cell. Its members
were found guilty of visa and marriage fraud, plus a series of financial
crimes committed to raise money for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
To Al-Qaeda, your customers' credit card data or your million dollar
trade secrets are potential funding for attacks. This convergence
means that the private sector must be engaged in security efforts
and information sharing like never before and in areas that once
seemed remote from business concerns.
This is certainly
true of the evolving threat from espionage against the United States.
We are deeply concerned about the potential for an agent of a hostile
group or nation to produce or use weapons of mass destruction. We
are also alert to the potential for a foreign power to penetrate
the U.S. Intelligence Community, to target government supported
R&D, and to compromise Critical National Assets.
We are seeing
a rise in incidences of economic espionage. The increasing value
of proprietary information and new technologies have combined to
increase both the motives and the opportunities for these crimes.
Theft of trade secrets and critical technologies is costing the
U.S. economy upwards of $250 billion per year. The counterfeiting
of U.S. goods overseas costs at least the same amount.
The players in the espionage game have diversified. The number of
countries engaged in espionage against the U.S. has actually risen
since the end of the Cold War, and we are not dealing exclusively
with intelligence agents. Today, the threat can come from university
students or business executives. According to one study, about 75
percent of economic espionage cases involve company insiders.
In the cyber
area, we continue to see a dramatic a rise in computer-related crimes,
such as denial of service attacks, and in traditional crimes that
have migrated online, such as identity theft, copyright infringement,
and child pornography.
Thanks to our
increasingly interconnected world, isolated individuals can now
launch attacks that cost billions of dollars and impact millions
of people. A powerful computer virus can be launched across a global
electronic network connecting hundreds of millions of people, and
set off a worldwide chain reaction costing millions or billions
of dollars in economic loss.
We are also
seeing increased trafficking in personal information databases on
U.S. citizens, manipulated on-line brokerage accounts, and fraudulent
electronic payments. In some cases, lone hackers or small groups
are behind the attacks, but many more assaults are from organized
international groups, often in Eastern Europe.
Last spring,
a United States scientific research station in Antarctica reported
to us that their systems had been hacked into and their data corrupted.
They sought our help.
Normally, we
send our Agents to the scene to investigate. But due to sub-freezing
temperatures, no aircraft would be able to land in Antarctica for
months. But working from a distance, our investigators were able
to trace the source of the intrusion to a server outside Pittsburgh.
From there, we identified two Romanian suspects. With the help of
the Romanian authorities, they were arrested outside Bucharest shortly
thereafter.
Successes
like these are due in large part to the FBI's efforts to reorganize
around our top three priorities: counterterrorism, counterintelligence,
and cyber. We have dedicated new resources and built up our capabilities
in these areas. We will continue to use our resources strategically,
focusing on areas where we bring something special to the table.
But these changes are only the beginning. Threats continue to evolve,
and the FBI must continue to evolve. If we are to address growing
threats, the FBI must build up our capabilities to address crimes
that cross borders, and we must remain as agile and adaptive, as
the global networks and organizations that threaten us.
The age of
global threats has moved the Bureau into an age of global partnerships.
The clear-cut divisions of responsibility and jurisdiction that
once existed between agencies - and even between the United States
and other countries - are becoming less and less relevant. How can
we defeat international terrorism, for example, without the help
of countries such as Great Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia
and Kenya?
That's why
the FBI, like many institutions, has gone global. In 1940, we established
our first international office - what is called a Legal Attaché
or Legat. Today, we have 45 Legal Attachés around the world.
Not only in cities like London, Paris and Rome. But also in places
like Islamabad, Riyadh, Moscow and Beijing.
Increasingly,
these Legats are helping to stop crime and terror from being exported
to our shores. FBI Agents today are working with counterparts in
places like Romania and Russia to track down cyber criminals. They
are joining forces with the Hungarian National Police to tackle
organized crime syndicates. They are gathering intelligence in Iraq
and Afghanistan and hunting down terrorists in concert with partners
in countries like Pakistan, Morocco, and Indonesia. We currently
have 44 FBI Agents in Baghdad conducting interviews, investigating
bombings, and exploiting intelligence.
Last May, after
nine Americans lost their lives in the bombing in Riyadh, the Saudi
government allowed the FBI to send a large forensic team to assist
in their investigation. The result was an unprecedented cooperation.
One reason was because the FBI had trained more than 100 Saudi police
in the National Academy. We were using the same methods of evidence
collection and the same terminology. As they told us, "We were
taught together, now we can work together." This is going on
all over.
In an age
where attacks on our economy come from the four corners of the globe,
from the streets of Detroit to the shores of Yemen, the FBI must
be able to call upon a full range of capabilities. We must combine
the tools of law enforcement, with the tools of intelligence to
identify and disable threats. We must fight crime even as we roll
up terrorist cells, using the same investigative capabilities to
root out corporate fraud that we use to catch criminals wiring funds
to terrorists. We must work locally, but think globally.
And we must
apply our unique strengths even as we share them and blend them
with those of other agencies. The war on terrorism prompted legal
and cultural changes that have enhanced our ability to work together.
First among them, is that we no longer have legal obstacles to coordination
and information-sharing between law enforcement and the intelligence
agencies. The walls have been removed and now law enforcement and
intelligence can coordinate their approach to terrorist targets.
We have also
seen the collapse of the cultural and operational wall between the
FBI and the CIA. There is growing operational integration between
the two agencies. In the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, known
as "T-TIC," FBI and CIA analysts work shoulder-to-shoulder
to "connect the dots" of incoming intelligence information.
In addition,
the FBI's Counterterrorism Division pours over intelligence information.
Once this information is pulled together and coordinated, there
are daily discussions with the Department of Homeland Security and
the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Recently, this
partnership resulted in the threat level being raised from yellow
to orange. A number of factors went into that decision: 1) an increase
in threat reporting suggesting the possibility of large-scale Al-Qaeda
attacks against the United States; 2) recent attacks in Saudi Arabia
and Turkey; 3) information indicating potential threats to the U.S.
over the holidays and beyond; and 4) information indicating continued
Al-Qaeda interest in carrying out airline attacks. On Friday the
threat level went back to yellow, but we still must remain vigilant
and alert!
Every bit
as important as our federal partnerships, are the FBI's partnerships
in the private sector. Just as the days are gone when law enforcement
agencies acted independently and kept information to themselves,
the days are also gone when businesses can stand alone.
Within the
past two years, the FBI has established unprecedented liaison with
the private sector. For example, when reporting indicated a possible
Al-Qaeda threat to U.S. financial institutions, the FBI alerted
the financial and banking sectors and worked to ensure that needed
information flowed between the Federal Government and the financial
services industry. They have also helped us, track down sources
of terrorist funding.
To coordinate
these efforts, the FBI leads Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs)
in each of our field offices. Their purpose is to investigate threats
and with the SACs, Chiefs, and Sheriffs, share information with
the public and private sector. Police as well as the public/private
sectors are the eyes and ears in the fight against terrorism. No
one can do it alone.
We are making
progress, but we will continue to need your help in the future.
Terrorists cannot hide forever in remote corners of the world. They
have to interact with society, particularly if they intend to strike
inside the United States. They will go shopping and set up bank
accounts. They will rent cars. They will buy equipment, communicate
with fellow operatives, or try to cross borders - all of these are
opportunities to identify and stop terrorists from doing harm. And
everyone can play a role by reporting suspicious activities to their
local FBI field office or JTTF or police departments.
Not only are
private sector partnerships necessary to prevent terrorism, they
are also essential for our fight against other transnational threats.
We can and must work together to protect your proprietary information
and America's Critical National Assets.
I encourage
each of you and your companies to establish a relationship with
your local FBI office or police department. If your organization
is not already part of an InfraGard chapter - join. Look into attending
the FBI Citizen's Academy at your local field office. These relationships
will pay high dividends in the future - for your mission and for
ours.
We understand
how important it is for the FBI to get information to your businesses
when there are threats. If we learn that a terrorist is targeting
a local power plant or a hacker is going after your company, someone
from the FBI will make sure you have the details. It is up to us
to help you understand what to look for, to share strategies, to
work with you to harden targets, and most importantly, to share
threat information. If you have questions, concerns, ideas, or issues,
please do not hesitate to contact us. Cooperation is key to success
against future transnational threats and terrorism.
In closing,
the increasing globalization of crime and emergence of transnational
threats will continue to bring new challenges to business and the
law enforcement and Intelligence Communities. In partnership with
you, we are committed to protecting your companies, protecting our
economy, and protecting this great nation in the years to come.
Your philosophy should be nearly the same as our philosophy:
(1) Know your
domain;
(2) Identify the threat and vulnerabilities;
(3) Partner up;
(4) Use sophisticated operations to protect your critical assets;
and
(5) Neutralize the goals and objectives of those who wish to do
us harm.
In partnerships
we can protect your interests and this great country we love.
Thank you ISMA
for inviting me back.
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