(CBS) A special commission has criticized the FBI for significant flaws in the case of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, convicted of spying for Moscow for 22 years in possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history, according to a report released on Thursday.

The commission, chaired by former FBI and CIA Director William Webster, recommended improved security steps, including more polygraph tests for agents and tightened access to secret information, after last year's arrest of Hanssen.

"During our review of FBI security programs, we found significant deficiencies in Bureau policy and practice," according to the commission's 107-page report on what it described as Hanssen's "heinous" treachery.

"Those deficiencies flow from a pervasive inattention to security, which has been at best a low priority," it said.

In a case that badly tarnished the FBI's reputation, Hanssen, a 25-year FBI agent and counter-intelligence expert, pleaded guilty last year to selling sensitive national security secrets to Moscow in exchange for $1.4 million. His lawyer said Hanssen began spying in 1979, just three years after he became an agent.

Citing Hanssen's own interviews with some members of the commission, the report said Hanssen's motivation for spying was money. His family was financially strapped after his transfer by the FBI in 1979 to New York, and he wanted to "get a little money" from espionage and then "get out of it."

By 1999, near the peak of Hanssen's most recent spying activities, he complained to the Russians of high credit-card debt, and said that college tuition for some of his six children and two mortgages on his home were creating an "atmosphere of desperation." A year later, he boasted to the Russians: "Generally speaking, you overestimate the FBI's capacity to interdict you."

But, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart, while money may have been one factor, Hanssen's longtime friend Paul Moore believes it went deeper than that.

"He gets initiated into this thing because of money, and then he goes along and he maintains the relationship, I believe, probably because of pride. I believe he's sort of interested as somebody who knows the system - in beating the system," Moore said.

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Click here to learn how Hanssen typically passed information to the Russians and explore a map of his "dead drop" locations.
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Click here to read the Webster commission's report.

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Hanssen, who is awaiting sentencing next month, agreed to cooperate with investigators, including Webster's commission that was appointed by Attorney General John Ashcroft to find ways to tighten security at the FBI.

"The only thing that possibly could have uncovered my espionage activities was a complete investigation of my financial positions and deposits to bank accounts," Hanssen told investigators, according to the report from a commission led by William H. Webster, the former CIA and FBI director.

"If I had been a more malevolent spy than I was, (the FBI) would have had a very difficult time finding me," Hanssen told the commission.

The Webster report suggests the FBI could have detected Hanssen's espionage earlier with better checks of his family's finances because he paid cash for a large addition to his home in Vienna, Va.

That could have tipped off FBI spy-hunters because any business transactions in excess of $10,000 cash must be reported to the Internal Revenue Service on a specific form. Under IRS rules, the FBI can review those forms at any time. IRS spokesman Don Roberts said the agency could not answer whether the FBI ever has sought the information because it does not track requests.

"We have the data in a database, and can use it," Roberts said.

After more than a year of study, the commission said the FBI has begun to take steps to improve security, but added that "senior management has not fully embraced the changes necessary to bring Bureau security programs up to par with the rest of the (U.S.) intelligence community."

The report, delivered to Ashcroft on Thursday, said, "In general, FBI security programs fall short of the (intelligence) community norm."

Ashcroft said the Webster report "demonstrates how a trusted insider, through repeated acts of betrayal and treachery over more than 20 years, was able to exploit deficiencies in FBI internal security systems and procedures to cause grievous harm." Ashcroft said he was pleased with FBI reforms being put in place.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, meeting with reporters on Wednesday, said the FBI already had adopted some of the report's recommendations, including broader use of polygraphs, and would consider other proposals, such as new financial disclosure requirements.

In a statement, Ashcroft said the report "demonstrates how a trusted insider, through repeated acts of betrayal and treachery over more than 20 years, was able to exploit deficiencies in FBI internal security systems and procedures to cause grievous harm to the national security."

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