Balance that level of distrust against the increasing frequency and severity of cybercrime threats. The latest Computer Crime and Security Survey, conducted by the San Francisco-based Computer Security Institute, indicated that 85 percent of the respondents (primarily large corporations and government agencies) had detected computer security breaches during the past year. Sixty-four percent acknowledged financial losses due to computer breaches. (Details on the annual poll, conducted in conjunction with the San Francisco FBI’s Computer Intrusion Squad, are available at www.gocsi.com/prelea_000321.htm.)

The authorities are improving their expertise by establishing dedicated electronic-crimes units to boost their cybercrime savviness and win the trust of corporate America. The FBI, for example, has almost finished outfitting its field offices with Regional Computer Crime Intrusion squads. The Department of Justice has established special Computer Crime & Intellectual Property divisions. The multiagency New York Electronic Crimes Task Force, which is coordinated by the U.S. Secret Service, attracted so many requests for help that the Secret Service plans to expand the concept to other field offices.

Also, the feds insist that despite overwhelming fears to the contrary, they won’t screw up your company by seizing your computers or overpublicizing your case. "They left control with us. All they did was assist," says Iverson. "There were no guns, and I never felt like they were going to take off with our servers."

Finally, cybercrime won’t evolve from being shameful to being aggressively prosecuted until the trickle of reported cases grows to a torrent. "The best deterrents for these kinds of crimes is the strong message that there are very serious consequences," says Ross Nadel, chief of the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the northern district of California, based in San Jose. "And a few good, serious cases can get that message across, if companies are willing to come forward."

Making the call isn’t just a moral imperative, it’s a practical one, says Usermagnet’s Ross. "If we expect the information economy to create new sources of prosperity, it’s got to be a reasonable, orderly place to do business," he says. "Packet kiddies are nothing more than juvenile delinquents running around with the Internet version of high-powered semiautomatic weapons. If the norm on the Internet becomes terrorist thugs pushing you around, nobody will bring their business there."

Time to Call the Cops

Three situations motivate companies to call the authorities: if they’re legally required to do so, if it’s "the right thing to do" and if it will help their bottom line, says Mark Rasch, vice president of cyberlaw for network consultancy Predictive Systems in Reston, Va. Rasch is the former head of the computer crimes division for the U.S. Department of Justice who investigated renowned hacker Kevin Mitnick and prosecuted Robert Morris, the Cornell student who created a worm that brought the Internet to a standstill.