US national security shifts focus from spies to cyber

Washington, Oct. 21: The US justice department is restructuring its national security prosecution team to deal with cyber attacks and the threat of sensitive technology ending up in the wrong hands, as American business and government agencies face more intrusions.

The revamp, led by assistant attorney general John Carlin, also marks a recognition that national security threats have broadened and become more technologically savvy since the 9/ 11 attacks against the United States.

As part of the shift, the justice department has created a new position in the senior ranks of its national security division to focus on cyber security and recruited an experienced prosecutor, Luke Dembosky, to fill the position. The agency is also renaming its counterespionage section to reflect its expanding work on cases involving violations of export control laws, Carlin confirmed in an interview.

Such laws prohibit the export without appropriate licenses of products or machinery that could be used in weapons or other defence programs, or goods or services to countries sanctioned by the US government.

“We need to develop the capability and bandwidth to deal with what we can see as an evolving threat,” said Carlin, who was confirmed to his post in April. As Carlin builds his team, he has also recruited a new deputy, Mary McCord, from the US attorney’s office in Washington.

The result, according to experts, could be an uptick in the number of national security- related cases brought in federal court, a shift in focus from the National Security Division’s prior mandate to investigate intelligence violations. “This is not just a reshuffling of the deck,” said former national security cyber crime prosecutor Nicholas Oldham, who is now in private practice. The changes come amid reports that hackers in Russia and elsewhere are targeting everyone from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union, to JPMorgan Chase & Co and other financial institutions. The counter espionage section, which deals less with on- theground spies than it used to, will now be called the Counter Intelligence and Export Controls Section.