FBI’s Most Wanted: Cyberexperts, Engineers reports on techies joining the FBI:
‘It sounds cheesy,’ he says, ‘but I did want to serve the country.’ He says he took a 50% pay cut, to $44,000, to join the FBI. His biggest challenge isn’t the technical work but the basics of being an agent: practicing on the gun range, questioning witnesses, dealing with traditional crime scenes — legwork that typifies traditional law enforcement.Mr. Clark personifies a new breed of G-man — and G-woman — almost as likely to pack a laptop as the requisite firearm. FBI Director Robert Mueller sharpened the agency’s focus on computer sleuthing two years ago by ordering the creation of a Cyber Division, which for the first time brought people with computer expertise under one command. He also made fighting cybercrime the agency’s third highest priority, after counterterrorism and counterintelligence.
Evidently this scenario comes from a real case:
In one actual case, still under investigation, a hacker broke into the computer of a college student and turned on the student’s Web camera to spy. The class watched the Webcam video, which showed what the hacker could see through the camera: a young man, with no shirt on, typing on his laptop, and, on a bed in the background, a young woman in jeans and a shirt.The hacker typed a message to the student: “Put your shirt on please,” triggering a look of shock from the student and hoots of laughter from the class. Then the hacker taunted: “Why are you using your computer when there’s a girl on your bed?” The student gaped at his laptop.