Law enforcement not making sufficient use of private cybersecurity

Private cybersecurity companies say that police and homeland security agencies should talk to and consult with private cybersecurity companies which gather large amounts of data on the activities and whereabouts of hackers and virus writers. For example, Peter Tippett, CTO of Herndon, Virginia-based Cybertrust, said that information provided by the security company led to the successful arrests of the writers of the Melissa and Kournikova viruses. Cybertrust, by the way, maintains four databases which track 11,000 hackers and virus writers. The company also employs a team of 78 people to maintain and update the system.

The data collected by companies such as Cybertrust does not typically reveal the people behind one of the most worrying trends in security: The creation of networks of compromised computers, or “botnets.” The thousands of hackers and virus writers tracked by Cybertrust and other companies are merely the foot soldiers; the generals and analysts believe most are members of the Russian mafia — do not show in the channels monitored by these private companies.