NIPC loses one of its own to 'Beltway' sniper

By Dan Verton

October 16, 2002 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - FAIRFAX, Va.—The hunt for the Washington-area sniper got personal yesterday for members of the FBI's cybersecurity division after one of their own became the latest victim in a killing spree that has claimed nine lives since starting Oct. 2.

Linda Franklin, a 47-year-old intelligence operations specialist at the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), was killed Monday night in the parking structure of a Home Depot in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County, Va. Her death is the latest in a series of random, sniperlike shootings that have sent fears of terrorism rippling through the communities where tens of thousands of government employees and high-tech industry executives live and work.

"Linda was a dedicated employee, and she will be missed," FBI Director Robert Mueller said in a statement released yesterday. "The employees who worked with Linda—and all of us—are deeply shocked and angry over this tragedy."

Franklin is remembered by colleagues at the NIPC as not only a "key asset" on the NIPC's analytical staff, but also as a great wife and friend. A cancer survivor, she underwent a mastectomy last October, and even before she was fully healthy she would invite others who had undergone similar surgery into her home for care.

"She would have as many as six people stay with her in a two-bed, two-bath house, plus maybe a half-dozen pets," said Paul Hulseberg, a former computer scientist at the NIPC and a longtime colleague and close personal friend of Franklin's. Hulseberg, whose work cubicle was located directly across from Franklin's, remembers her as being "instrumental" in getting the FBI's InfraGard program off the ground. InfraGard is the bureau's nationwide program for cyberthreat information sharing with the private sector.

"She worked many, many long days and weekends on that program," he said.


RC-7 Airborne Reconnaissance Low aircraft (photo courtesy, Federation of American Scientists)

Franklin had been with the NIPC for three and a half years, joining just as the cybersecurity unit was being formed. The NIPC is responsible for detecting and analyzing cyberthreats to the nation's critical computer systems and infrastructures, such as the telecommunications grid and electric power systems, and then warning government agencies and the private sector about those threats.

Coming as it did in a relatively crowded, well-lit parking garage situated in a busy shopping center known as Seven Corners, Franklin's murder significantly heightened tensions in the area and led the FBI to turn up the heat in the hunt for the killer. Pentagon officials said yesterday that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had approved a request from the FBI for surveillance support in the form of a U.S. Army intelligence-gathering aircraft.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

POLL RESULTS

Leading IT Pros Weigh In on Top IT Issues

Accelerate your knowledge of the IT world you inhabit by viewing the results of a series of polls taken by your IT peers. These polls of 100+ IT professionals each are available for full viewing. They cover key topics such as virtualization, processor performance, green IT, cloud computing and many others. Be a part of the buzz.

WHITE PAPER

For Best Results, Think Beyond the Box

Technology is complex. Keeping it running productively shouldn't be. To that end, you want to minimize the number of solutions needed in-house to simplify operations, maintenance, and support. Kodak offers a best-practices model. One company provides support for both scanner and software, for fast problem resolution without vendor finger-pointing. Download now!

WHITE PAPER

Accelerating the Path to Demand Intelligence with a Demand Signal Repository

Utilizing demand intelligence improves the precision of pricing, product assortments, channel/store placement, and promotion, which are all essential for sustainable revenue management performance. Learn more, download this free whitepaper today.

White Papers & Webcasts

U.S. Restaurant Chain Bakes in Whitelisting
Targeted attacks, data theft and PCI DSS compliance are current challenges for most organizations today. In this Case Study, discover how Bit9 helped...

Modernizing the IT Infrastructure
(Source: Oracle) There is a lot of legacy in many government IT systems today - legacy hardware, legacy software platforms, and legacy skills...

IT Modernization in Government
As IT budgets are slashed, IT management pressures rise and legacy systems linger in government organizations, modernizing the IT infrastructure and applications has...

Usability Is Everything
Learn what sets Workday's HR and Payroll solutions apart from the competition....

Accelerate SSL Encrypted Applications
The amount of SSL traffic is growing in the enterprise. Because it is encrypted, it cannot be properly controlled and accelerated. Blue Coat...

The Value of Real SaaS at Workday
Cost savings, speed to value, and innovation brought to the enterprise by Workday's software-as-a-service solutions for HR and Payroll....

ESG Lab Field Audit
Many companies have successfully implemented Riverbed WAN optimization solutions within their Cisco networks. This ESG Lab Field Audit document explores the success that...

SaaS at Flextronics, Inc.
Dave Smoley, CIO of Flextronics, discusses the real value of software-as-a-service and why he chose Workday for his HR solution....

Shape Your Apps Strategy to Reflect New SaaS Licensing and Pricing Trends
Why are smart companies choosing software-as-a-service? Find out in the complimentary Forrester Research report...

Why Compliance Pays
This OnDemand webcast explores the relationship that firms with best compliance records have higher revenue, greater customer retention, lower financial losses from data...

All White Papers | All Webcasts