Gordon Snow, FBI's new top cyber cop

A Q&A with Gordon Snow of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Division.

As the FBI's top cyber cop, he's on the front lines of federal efforts to thwart cyber crime, espionage and potential online terrorist activity. Snow, who took over as FBI assistant director in charge of the bureau's Cyber Division earlier this year, served in the Marine Corps for more than 10 years and has a master's degree in business administration and law degree. He has held bureau posts in Silicon Valley, Detroit and Afghanistan, which would seem to be the ideal background for someone in his position. In addition, he recently helped draft the government's Cyber Counterintelligence Plan while detailed to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and he has directed the bureau's National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. But even for someone as prepared as Snow, leading the Cyber Division has to be a challenge. In 2009, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center Web site received 336,655 submissions. And cyber crime poses special challenges for law enforcement because online perpetrators can use various technologies to hide their identities. The problem is also inherently international, as indicated by the cyber intrusion agents that the FBI has stationed in foreign countries to work side by side with computer investigators.