Justice Department trains prosecutors to combat cyber espionage

Confronting a growing threat to national security, the Justice Department has begun training hundreds of prosecutors to combat and prosecute cyber espionage and related crimes, according to senior department officials. The new training is part of a major overhaul following an internal review that pinpointed gaps in the department’s ability to identify and respond to potential terrorist attacks over the Internet and to the rapidly growing crime of cyber espionage, the officials said, describing it for the first time. Justice lawyers are grappling with two distinct categories of national security threats from the Internet. One danger is from terrorists plotting full-scale cyber attacks and the other comes from hackers, cyber criminals and foreign governments stealing trade secrets from the private sector and sensitive classified information from the military and government agencies.