A top administration official charged with helping to protect the nation's critical infrastructure from criminal activity said Wednesday that the ability of hackers and terrorists to hide the source of a cyberattack is making it increasingly difficult to tackle such crimes.
During a breakfast speech before the American Bar Association, Michael Vatis, director of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, said one of the biggest issues facing policymakers and officials trying to combat cybercrimes is the difficulty of determining whether an attack should be treated as a national security or domestic matter. He said that hackers' ability to hide where they launched an attack from by sending it through other computers has made the task of determining the source much more difficult.
He said there also is much debate about what is a national security matter and what is not. It could hinge on who is launching the attack or on who is hit, he said.
He noted that there are consequences related to how an attack is classified. For example, he said if it's labeled as an attack on national security, federal officials have some legal tools at their disposal not available for domestic cases. The issue only will become more difficult as the volume of attacks grows. He said the number of pending cyberattack cases the center is dealing with has grown from more than 200 in 1997 to more than 1,000 today.
"What does it mean to define it as a national security attack? Does that mean we can launch a counter attack," Vatis asked. "That's one option. But think about the consequences of a mistake."
He cited three possible solutions to the issue: Staying with the status quo, changing current laws to provide federal agencies with greater investigative powers, or changing technology to make it more difficult to hide the source of an attack. He added that he does not endorse any one solution to the problem.
When asked what the United States is doing to tackle crimes that originate outside the United States, he said "it's a huge issue . . . It makes the job more difficult."
He said the United States has had success in gaining cooperation from other countries. But he said there is concern about how much cooperation U.S. officials will have from countries that are on less friendly terms with the United States.
NEXT STORY: House directs USDA to beef up online services