Up Close and Personal with Cyber Agent Colleen Moss
Considered a Career as an FBI Cyber Agent?
Here’s What It’s Like: Up Close and Personal
08/05/05
It didn’t take long for Colleen Moss to earn her stripes. The newly minted special agent had been on the job just eight days in 1997 when she arrested her first bank robber—a man who stole $76,000. Now she’s cracking down on cyber criminals who steal people’s identities as well as their cash and who trade child porn on the Internet. Her interest in the Bureau was stoked in college after hearing an agent talk about his experiences. “It was clear to me that he loved his job,” she says. Colleen talked to us about her own experiences in the FBI.
Q. Can you describe some interesting cases you’ve worked on?
Colleen: I’ve been involved in a lot of searches and arrests of people who were producing and transmitting child pornography images online. In several cases we were able to identify the children who were being victimized and make sure they could get help. I’ve posed undercover as a child in Internet chat rooms, but my current forte is investigating child porn websites and newsgroups. I’ve also worked Internet fraud cases that have been classified as national security matters and that were briefed at the Pentagon and the White House.
Q. Have you ever traveled overseas or in the U.S. on a case?
Colleen: I’ve traveled a lot for Innocent Images cases in the U.S. and Canada. Most of my travel is to train local, state, and federal investigators on how to do online investigations. I’ve also testified at several trials around the country.
Q. What’s a typical working day like?
Colleen: There is not typical day on a cyber squad. One day you may be conducting an undercover meeting; another day you could be reviewing evidence, interviewing suspects or victims, or working with investigators from around the world to track down a subject or obtain evidence.
Q. What do you like most about the job?
Colleen: I find cyber to be very rewarding and very busy! There are always new cases to work on and new ways the “bad guys” are committing crimes. I’ve found that there’s no such thing as the same crime committed the same way. You always have to be thinking outside the box when trying to tackle online crime because there are thousands of different ways to commit the same crime.
Q. Any advice for prospective FBI recruits?
Colleen: You must be able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, and not just during an arrest. The work you plan to do one day may not happen because someone on another squad needs help. The demands of the job can change daily; you need to be flexible and have a sense of humor or this is not the job for you.
Apply today! Go to fbijobs.gov.
Links: More stories on cyber agents and analysts | FBI Cyber webpage