A report from the U.S. Department of Justice brings disturbing news: FBI agents tasked to investigate cybercrime and online terrorism may not all be up to the job.

The DOJ's Office of the Inspector General says that in interviews with 36 field agents in 10 of the FBI's 56 field offices nationwide, 13 agents, or more than a third, reported that "they lacked the networking and counterintelligence expertise to investigate national security [computer] intrusion cases." Five of those agents told inspectors they viewed themselves as unqualified to conduct investigations of computer hacking involving national security.

According to the report, the FBI's weakness in online policing efforts stems from many factors, including the agency's practice of rotating agents among its nationwide offices every three years. Such practices may "underutilize" agents with cybercrime investigative experience in some regional offices, while other offices lack agents with computer forensic skills.

FBI Associate Deputy Director T.J. Harrington, in a written response to the DOJ report, noted that the Bureau had met 20 of 22 mandates outlined in the President's Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. He also concurred with the report's recommendations and outlined a number of other steps his agency is taking to improve its expertise in cybercrime investigation.

Can the FBI be brought up to speed fast enough, however? Our latest State of the Net report, which will be posted online soon, estimates that one-third of households we surveyed last year suffered some sort of malware infection, costing consumers about $2.3 billion.

For more information about protecting your computer and personal data, see Consumer Reports Guide to Online Safety.

FBI Agents Can Lack Skills to Investigate Computer Intrusions, Report Says [Bloomberg]
Cyberespionage: US finds FBI agents in elite unit lack necessary skills [Christian Science Monitor]
FBI cybercrime agents say they aren't up to the job [TG Daily]