By Paul Anderson, ERRI Analyst

  WASHINGTON (EmergencyNet News) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned Congress on Tuesday that criminal cases against computer hackers have more than doubled this year. Speaking before a congressional Joint Economic Committee, FBI experts said they are seeing a significant increase in the number of pending cases of computer intrusions, rising from 206 to 480 this year.

The FBI's leading experts on cybercrime said the U.S. was increasingly vulnerable to an attack which could undermine vital services such as telecommunications, emergency services, banking and the supply of electricity, oil and gas.

"Although we have not experienced the electronic equivalent of a Pearl Harbor or Oklahoma City, as some have foretold, the statistics and our cases demonstrate our dangerous vulnerabilities to cyber attacks," said Michael Vatis, head of the FBI's national infrastructure protection center.

Vatis said hackers were attacking vital domestic services. He told how one hacker had broken into telephone systems in Massachusetts to cut off communications at a regional airport and disconnect the control tower in 1997. Another hacker in Florida is accused of breaking into the 911 emergency phone system last year and jamming all emergency services calls in the region.

The FBI said the dangers of cybercrime were rising because of the increased availability of hacking tools on the Internet, as well as electronic hardware such as radio frequency jamming equipment.

Despite the publicity surrounding hackers, industrial espionage still remains the most costly source of cybercrime.

FBI officials told how the U.S. was increasingly the subject of economic attack by foreign governments using computers. Larry Torrence, of the FBI's national security division, said foreign agents were "aggressively targeting" proprietary business information belonging to U.S. companies.