By Gerry Smith

Some American companies are still unwilling to report to law enforcement they have been hacked, a reluctance that is making it more difficult to combat cybercrime, a top federal prosecutor told The Huffington Post.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, chastised businesses last year for failing to disclose that their computer systems have been breached.

In an interview last week, Bharara told HuffPost that silence from hacking victims “is still an issue” and is often complicated by many factors, including the desire of companies to protect their stock prices and reputations.

“It’s not just a law enforcement problem; it’s a corporate culture problem also,” he said during an interview in his office in lower Manhattan, where he keeps a photo on the wall of his mother with his favorite musician, Bruce Springsteen.

“We can’t solve the problem overnight, but I think it’s gotten better,” he added. “When you talk to people, anecdotally at least, more and more understand it’s a problem.” As time goes by, he says, more and more companies either have been hacked, or realize they have been hacked in the past and didn’t know it at the time.

Read More  Secretive Companies Allow Hackers To Thrive: U.S. Attorney.