IT managers and security consultants say the best way to increase trust of law enforcement agencies is to establish a relationship with an agent that specializes in cybercrime before a breach occurs. "You don’t ever want to just call the police. You want to call your friend Bob down at the FBI," says Rasch.

Nilsson seconds that advice. Having once worked with a particular agent, he was much more comfortable calling that person when another incident arose.

Fear Three: Lack of Results

When it comes to involving the feds, skeptics seem divided into two camps: those who believe federal law enforcement should never be trusted, and those who believe the FBI and other groups mean well but are ultimately ineffective.

"The sense that I get in cases where the FBI has been involved is that they didn’t provide a lot of value add," says Peggy Weigle, CEO of Sanctum, a Santa Clara, Calif., manufacturer of security and control software for Web applications. "The top priority for any company is to seal and secure the site. It’s difficult to catch hackers. Our feeling is you should focus instead on getting back into shape."

Chip Smith is cautiously optimistic about the legal clout of law enforcement. Now director of corporate security for the Bank of New York, he’s the former special agent in charge of the New York Field Office for the U.S. Secret Service. On one hand, he says, "law enforcement has come a long way in five years. They’re making leaps and bounds in understanding all these things." On the other hand, he concedes, they still have a long way to go. "A lot of prosecutors still aren’t familiar [with cybercrime]. A lot of law enforcement still isn’t familiar with it. The laws have to become commensurate with the crimes being committed."

Many crime fighters say the current laws already allow sufficient latitude for them to pursue criminals and win convictions. "In the United States, we have strong laws," says the Department of Justice’s Herrera. "If we’re able to figure out who the intruder is and if there’s a climate where [the victim] wants to pursue an investigation, then the laws are enough."

If the FBI and other authorities hope to send a message in such cases, it’s a message aimed just as much at corporate America as it is at the cybercriminals. "You can have all the firewalls and intrusion detection systems you want, but nothing is 100 percent secure if it’s connected to the Internet," Gardner says. "If companies have had things stolen and they don’t want it to happen again, we’re hoping they’ll want to come forward and set an example."