The FBI's chief cyber cop, Michael Vatis, will leave the agency next week.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., Vatis confirmed he will leave the FBI. Vatis said he currently has no employment plans but is reviewing alternatives. He has been at the Justice Department and the FBI for eight years, but is not a political appointee. No replacement has been named.
His two-year tenure as chief of the National Infrastructure Protection Center was marked by massive increases in reported computer crime from 450 cases in 1998 to 1,200 last year. Vatis said the NIPC has worked hard to build a coalition with private industry to improve protection of the nation's infrastructure and catch intruders.
One of Vatis' last official duties was to launch the FBI's new InfraGuard program, a partnership with private industry designed to enhance the sharing information about cyber attacks. The program has been in a start-up phase at regional FBI offices since 1996 and now has 500 private-sector members, including IBM, Alcatel, The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.
"It's an idea that was born in the field and is now a national program," Vatis said. "Private companies have the best information and we have seen them willing to come forward."
The new program, which receives no separate funding from the FBI, is open to any companies with operations in the United States.
