US DOJ Has to Go Through 'Thicket of Privacy Rules' to Fight Cybercrime

 

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has to negotiate its way through foreign privacy regulations to obtain data, including e-mails, from corporations in order to fight cybercrime, US Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said at a financial crime conference on Monday.

“Increasingly, we [DOJ] seek data such as e-mail from companies’ operations all over the world and often have to navigate a thicket of data privacy rules that may vary greatly from country to country,” Caldwell said.

The international nature of DOJ’s work is driven by the global reach of the Internet and US law enforcement needs to adapt to this reality, Caldwell added.

Caldwell noted the issue is a global problem, and the DOJ is “working closely with our foreign partners… to catch and bring to justice cybercriminals.”

Corporations need to make compliance to cybersecurity policies a major priority, Caldwell argued, given that human errors can be exploited by cybercriminals, which can lead to devastating consequences.

On Wednesday, the US watchdog organization Freedom House claimed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) violated privacy rights because of warrantless surveillance of internet communications.

The US Senate passed legislation on Friday that would broaden sharing of cyber information between US government agencies and the private sector. The bill is controversial because it would allow companies to provide data to the US government without liability.