If enough perpetrators are jailed, Vatis says, then the deterrent factor should reduce the ranks of potential intruders. Here's where the plan hits a snag. First, businesses don't want to share their dirty laundry. CSI's latest computer crime and security survey shows that of the 64 percent of organizations that did willingly acknowledge security breaches last year, only 17 percent reported the incidents to law enforcement agencies. But public perception isn't the NIPC's only challenge.
Encryption is an ongoing sore spot.
For years the FBI has resisted businesses' efforts to ease U.S. restrictions on encryption software, which allows users discretionary access to proprietary data. Tippett doesn't dispute the validity of the threat the NIPC has identified. The NIPC, therefore, will have a hard time getting the attention of high-tech business leaders wary of government intrusion. Nobody I've ever met has said the FBI is a technologically sophisticated organization as compared with companies in the private sector. So far, CSI Director Patrice Rapalus doesn't sense outright resistance from business leaders.