FBI can't protect its own agents from cyber-terror threats
Monday, March 20, 2006 Posted: 8:47 AM EST (1347 GMT)NEW YORK -- Cyber-terrorism is forcing some local Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to operate without e-mail accounts, according to the agency's top official in New York.
"As ridiculous as this might sound, we have real cyber-terror issues right now, and the government is reluctant to give all agents and analysts dot-gov accounts," Mark Mershon said when asked about the gap at a New York Daily News editorial board meeting.
"We just don't have the ability to protect our agents, and that is an endless stream of complaints that come from the field," he said.
FBI officials in Washington denied that cyber-terrorism was putting agents at a disadvantage. Spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan said e-mail addresses are still being assigned, adding that the city bureau's 2,000 employees would all have secure accounts by the end of the year. Mershon, the assistant director in charge of the agency's New York City office, also said that 100 city agents have been given Internet-ready phones such as BlackBerry devices.
Christine Monaco, a spokeswoman for the FBI in New York, said Monday that all FBI agents can communicate with each other via an internal e-mail system which is not threatened by cyber-terrorism, and about 75 percent of the New York office's employees have outside e-mail accounts which cyber-terrorists don't consider important enough to attack. "The outside e-mail accounts have to be separately funded," she said.
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) called for better access to cyber-terror-resistant technology for agents. "The FBI should have the tools it needs to fight cyber-terrorism in the 21st century, most of all in New York City, and one of the most effective means of communications is e-mail and the Internet," he said. "FBI agents not having e-mail or Internet access in the fight against cyber-terrorism is much too much a pre-9/11 mentality."