Cybercrime is one of the fastest-growing areas of criminality in the United States and Texas. It’s an area of expertise for Dallas’ likely new top federal prosecutor who has spent her career battling cybercrime, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Erin Nealy Cox is a former federal prosecutor in Dallas and a cybersecurity expert. She was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
The Northern District of Texas covers 7 million people in 100 counties in western and northern Texas.
Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz recommended Cox, and the Senate is expected to confirm her nomination, making her North Texas’ top federal law enforcement officer.
From the outset, Cox specialized in cybercrime. She worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Dallas from 1999 to 2008, the Dallas Morning News reported.
She also spent 19 months in Washington, D.C., as chief of staff for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy. Cox worked on policy and legislative initiatives.
However, Cox left the U.S. attorney’s office in 2008. She took up a position with Stroz Friedberg, a cybersecurity and global risk management consulting firm where she set up and headed the company’s Dallas office. She was recently put in charge of investigating intrusions and data breaches for the firm.
How Widespread is Cybercrime?
Over the past few years, cybercrime has become increasingly prevalent.
Recently, Equifax, the credit bureau suffered a massive cyber breach which put the information of 143 million Americans at risk from hackers.
A recent report on CBS noted as many as 1.5 million cyber attacks are occurring every year.
It’s a number that equates to more than 4,000 cyber attacks every day, 170 attacks every hour, or almost three attacks every minute.
IBM estimates companies are attacked 16,856 times a year on average. That equates to 46 attacks every day for every business.
Although most of these cyber attacks don’t actually get past a company’s defenses, on average 1.7 per week are successful.
The CBS article noted in 2014, 47 percent of adults in America had personal information stolen by hackers, usually through data breaches at large companies.
Chad Pinson, executive managing director of Stroz Friedberg’s Dallas office told the Dallas Morning News cybercriminals are showing increasing levels of sophistication and could pose a serious threat to critical infrastructure like power, lights and water systems.
He welcomed the likely appointment of Cox as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
Internet crimes often involve complex investigations and enhanced penalties. Read more about these federal crimes on the website of our Dallas cybercrimes defense lawyers.
