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FBI director outlines security changes

Robert Mueller

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In advance of the release of a report expected to be harshly critical of the FBI's security procedures, the bureau's director Wednesday outlined steps already being taken to address the problems.

The review was undertaken in the wake of the Robert Hanssen spy scandal, in which an FBI agent was able to spy for the Soviet Union and Russia for years before being discovered.

"Every employee should recognize the need to emphasize security in the wake of Hanssen," said FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Before the scandal, he said, "security was not a principle priority. There was no security division. The FBI didn't have enough expertise. We moved to address that."

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The report, put together by a panel chaired by William Webster, former head of both the FBI and the CIA, is expected to be delivered Friday to Attorney General John Ashcroft. Webster is to appear Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee to talk about the report.

Mueller said the bureau is taking these steps:

-- It has elevated the role of security by establishing a security division in December and naming an assistant director in charge of security;

-- It is moving toward professionalizing security personnel and not assuming agents can handle security issues;

-- It is moving toward doing extensive financial audits of agents;

-- It is moving toward expanding its polygraph program; right now, Mueller said, only 700 FBI employees have been administered "lie detector" tests;

-- It intends to use outside commercial sources to vet the trustworthiness of its employees;

-- It has upgraded computer security to do better auditing of computer use and to safeguard secure information and access;

-- It has taken steps to better account for hard copy and to protect physical assets and facilities.

While all FBI agents will continue to be given top secret clearance, the number of people included in the "need to know circle" is now smaller, reduced by a couple of thousand in the past year, Mueller said.

Hanssen, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, pleaded guilty in July to 15 counts of espionage for giving information to the Soviet Union and later Russia, dating back to 1979. Under his plea agreement, he will receive a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

Webster's report is expected to conclude that:

-- The bureau did not have a sufficiently serious attitude about internal security issues.

-- An antiquated computer system used by the bureau may have allowed Hanssen's spying to go undetected for years.

-- Lack of a cohesive management structure and compartmentalized information flow within the agency meant that different parts of the bureau weren't aware of each other's activities.

-- The bureau's systems for keeping physical information, such as records and interviews, were inadequate.

--The bureau's personnel structure needs to be revamped.