Federal Bureau of Investigations

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is a U.S law enforcement agency that was established in 1908 and that aims to protect communities and businesses from that face of dangerous threats. These threats constitute spies; domestic and international terrorists; serial killers; child predators; violent street gangs; mobsters; corrupt government officials; and cyber villains. Through their intensive and extensive work, the Federal Bureau of Investigations upholds and defends democracy, electronic and physical infrastructure, and the economy of the United States. The FBI is thus a national security organization that is threat-focused and intelligence driven and that wields the responsibilities to produce and use intelligence, and enforce the criminal laws of the United States(FBI, 2016). In addition to this, the FBI provides their partners, municipal, state, federal, and internationalagencies with leadership and criminal justice services.

The structure of the FBI is such that it enables them to deal with threats with complex and large dangers to be handled effectively an individual state or local authority. Their budget is in billions of U.S dollar with the total direct-funded budget for 2014 standing at about $8.3 billion. This puts on their priority list threats that challenge the foundations of the American society(FBI, 2016). In their employ are about 35,000 people who besides the special agents also includesupport professionals for instance information technology specialists, scientists, language specialists, and intelligence analysts. Although the FBI is headquartered in Washington D.C, their work is spread throughout the world with over 60 offices internationally in U.S embassies.

Intelligence

Investigations under priority investigative programs lie at the heart of the organizations operations with the production of intelligence under their Intelligence Branch being center and front of their operations. Being the strategic leader of the FBI programs, the Intelligence Branch also drives collaboration by engaging its partners in law enforcement and intelligence communities to achieve full integration of operations and intelligence. To ensure that they strike the right balance between tactical work and strategic work in their intelligence production, the Federal Bureau of Investigations through their Intelligence Branch administers guidance and intelligence policy.

Cyber Crime

New challenges to law enforcement and protection from threats have been witnessed in United States with the turn of the century. In the 21st century, national security threats and criminals are increasingly striking from far with potentially shockingoutcomes, through computer networks(Jahankhani, et al., 2015). People in the world are building their lives around networks; both wireless and wired, and the FBI has a responsibility to defend these networks and ultimately the people. To authorities and governments the world over, cyber security has been flagged as a major concern because of the increased use in daily living of computer resources.

Among the top priority areas of the Federal Bureau of Investigations is their mission to protect the United States against high technology crimes and cyber-attacks. In 2014, the FBI budget was significantly increased to enhance among other programs the Cyber program. Nationally, the FBI leads the investigative efforts in high-tech crimes: computer intrusions, major cyber fraud, cyber-based terrorism, and espionage. The intelligence and information gathered is then shared their worldwide partners both in the private and in public sectors(Grewe, 2004). Among the cyber threats and frauds investigated by the FBI are in the areas of: E-Scams& warnings, internet crimes, common internet frauds, ransom ware and peer-to-peer networks. Their key priorities are however; in identify theft, computer and networks intrusions, and fraud(FBI, 2016).

The FBI’s success in their fight against Cyber-crime is hinged on their partnerships with partners with initiatives in the same area of focus such as the Cyber Task Forces, Cyber Action Team, National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance, and the National Cyber Investigative Joint task Force among others. Notably, the FBI has handled cases and takedowns on the following: Operation Phish Fry, operation Ghost Click, Dark Market, 2,100 ATMs Hit at Once and Coreflood Botnet(FBI, 2016).

Reason For Caution Against Ranking Warning On FBI Website

The cautionary notice issued to users of the FBI‘s publication known as “Crime in the United States” is meant to dissuade them from using the statistics presented therein to rank given areas like cities based on their reported crime prevalence. The ranking, when done, occasions incomplete and simplistic appraisals and comparisons. The comparisons often create false perceptions that affect the areas and their people unfavorably. As regards cities, the comparisons often create false perceptions since each city has unique geographical, as well as demographic, factors that shape its crime trends and reporting according to Arlington Cardinal (2015), the Conference of Mayors (2013) and Scoville (2013).

Federal Bureau of Investigations: The Core Value Of Responsible Stewardship

Diversity; fairness; compassion; professional and personal leadership; uncompromising institutional and personal integrity; respect for the dignity of all those they protect; rigorous obedience to the United States Constitution; and accountability by acceptance of responsibility for actions, decisions and consequences thereof, all form part of the core values of the FBI. Their motto; Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity, speaks of the courage to be faithful to their mandate with reasonable exactness and moral uprightness(FBI, 2016). With the resources made available to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the organization endeavors to employ both human and financial resources for the security of the nation and its citizens by striving to be resourceful and by optimizing the resources to achieve the goals and mission of the organization.

In their operations, the FBI aims for responsibility and accountability and they achieve in this in the observance of best practices in accounting and procurement processes, policies relating to human resources and their enforcement responsibilities. Policies are relating to intelligence and law enforcement is explained to all the members of the organization inspiring them to adhere to moral, ethical, and legal practices. Ultimately, the executives are responsible for all that occurs in their respective units and departments.

For the federal government, the FBI is the primary investigative agency and as such has the responsibility to keep pace if not stay ahead of crime trends and the ever-emerging threats to the United States. In light of Cyber security, threats to the nation can originate from transnational criminal enterprises, terrorist organizations, and states, which call for the application of the FBI’s unique and complimentary dual responsibility as the principal law enforcement agency and the domestic intelligence agency of the nation. Since their mandate is for intelligence collection and investigation within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States and regarding to United States persons overseas, the FBI is bound by the U.S constitution, guidelines provided by the Attorney General and other relevant laws that require them to use the least intrusive methods necessary in their investigations.Their mandate as an enforcer of the federal law and defender and protector of the constitution of the United States, allow them to take action from time to time on behalf of victims.

To prevent increase Cyber Situational Awareness (CSA) and prevent cyber breaches the analysis of experiences relating to cyber-attacks comes in handy and calls for the application of data mining technology. Data mining of historical data further provides the platform for the application of predictive analytic techniques that have the potential of indicating ways in which to secure people against cyber threats in the future(Jahankhani, et al., 2015). Data mining obtains information that is useful from large amounts of raw data by focusing on the analysis, extraction, and discovery information considered useful in the prediction of future behavior. For such endeavors in the improvement of Cyber Situational Awareness to succeed, effective collaboration between agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations and cyber specialists will be required not only to deal with recent threats but also to fill current cyber security gaps.

Good information-sharing and record-keeping practices are a significant part of any agency operating in the global environment of this century. This is so because they provide an agency’s official memory of their past and on-going investigations, which can be shared across agencies and throughout the world for optimized collaboration(Grewe, 2004). Responsible stewardship on the part of the Federal Bureau of Investigations would constitute the ability to provide access to timely and accurate records. When pieced together, information and records on criminal identification, detentions and arrests from the FBI and from other jurisdictions yields improved results at all investigation levels and in the overall protection of the nation and its people. The FBI has made a commitment to provide reliable, accurate, and immediate information to help with law enforcement and towards this endeavor; they have furnished relevant agencies with manuals to acquaint themselves with services and programs provided by the FBI. These manuals relates to the Records Management System (RMS) as pertains the Federal Bureau of Investigation that provides for the viewing of documents, files and records regarding the operations of law enforcement. Through the RMS, information can also be stored, retained, archived, manipulated, and retrieved(Grewe, 2004).

Accurate and timely data is of paramount importance to not only the FBI but also to other law enforcement agencies as it used in making plans, formulating budgets, allocating resources, assessing agency performance, and evaluating trial programs.

Geographic jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

            The Federal Bureau of Investigation have geographic jurisdiction limited to the territorial boundaries of the United States. This is means the FBI operations are limited to only 50 states of the America as well as the federal reservations. Therefore, accountability and powers of the FBI is limited to its jurisdictional operational area (Shapiro, 1995). The agency’s legal jurisdiction is subject to the federal law enacted by the U.S Congress. Although the FBI is specialized and decentralized, the agency deals on specific crimes such as white-collar crime in abroad and at home, drug trafficking, violation of federal statutes, terrorism, extortion, corruption, bribery and organized crimes. The agency does not have jurisdiction to deal with aggravated robbery and homicide.

The police department have the jurisdiction of enforcing the law at the state level. They act as the representatives of the government. In the cities, semi-autonomous law enforcement agency is in-charge of security (Shapiro, 1995). These semi-autonomous agencies are headed by a sheriff whose jurisdiction is limited to counties and cities. The police department are responsible for dealing with homicide, burglary and aggravated robbery within their area of operations.

In term of operations, more than one level of law enforcement agency can have a jurisdiction over one crime. For example, the recent aggravated shooting incidents in schools across the United States brings together different agencies to deal with the situation. In most cases, the first responders are the local police and the FBI comes in to investigate whether the act was instigated by terrorism activities.

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