As the man who put hacker icon Kevin Mitnick in prison five years ago, Asst. U.S. Attorney Christopher M.E. Painter is one of the Justice Department’s top cyber-prosecutors.

It comes as little surprise, then, that after nine years at the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, Painter is headed to Washington, D.C., to help lead the Criminal Division’s Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section as the Clinton administration ramps up its pursuit of Internet criminals.