Private companies are not mandated to report crime. In 1998, President Clinton signed a bill calling for computer crime statistics to be collected by law enforcement. Nelson said the police have been doing this, and regularly share information between states and local agencies. During the Melissa virus, for example, the FBI worked with the New Jersey State Police to crack the case. Just before speaking at EC Valley 2000, Nelson was in Chicago for a conference of the High Technology Crime Investigation Association where scores of law enforcement professionals gather each year.
Law enforcement faces a huge challenge.
It's hard to pay them enough to get experts. Hacked From the Inside Many companies are actually hacked by disgruntled former employees. Often, employees are not removed from the system or their passwords aren't changed after they leave. Nelson said he had one recent case involving a large, international company based in the Delaware Valley that fired an IT worker. The company was hacked by him two months later.