INTZ Mercury News Staff Writer Attorney General Janet Reno ventured into Silicon Valley on Wednesday to make her latest pitch for ramping up the war on cybercrime, soliciting the help of tech-industry leaders who traditionally have been skeptical of cooperating with law enforcement. At a cybercrime summit hosted by Stanford Law School, Reno told an audience of high-tech executives, prosecutors, federal agents and students that the Justice Department and private industry must do a better job of collaborating to police the Internet for fraud and protect sensitive computer systems. Reno said, alluding to the need for private industry to improve its own security systems. The attorney general's speech comes amid heightened attention to computer-related crime nationally, in large part spurred by the week of sustained hacking incidents against major Internet sites in February.
Federal investigators have yet to apprehend the culprits in that case.
Despite such losses, Silicon Valley leaders over the years have maintained a healthy skepticism about law enforcement's commitment to combating computer crime. Peter Watkins, chief executive officer of Network Associates, the largest computer security outfit, told the Stanford gathering that there has been a perception in the industry that law enforcement does not take computer crime seriously. In addition, Watkins noted a reluctance among high-tech companies to share private information with law enforcement. Watkins questioned whether it would be appropriate to share that information with law enforcement. The conference was attended by many local law enforcement officials, including San Francisco U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller III, who has promised to place more emphasis on high-tech crime in the valley.