The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is focused on bolstering its efforts to stop cybercriminals and hackers, said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“Today, we live much of our lives online, and we’re in a situation where just about everything that is important to us lives on the Internet. And that’s a pretty scary thought for a lot of people,” Wray said, speaking at the International Conference on Cyber Security last week. “What was once a minor threat—people hacking for fun or bragging rights—has now turned into full-blown nation-state economic espionage and very, very lucrative cyber-criminal activity. The threat is now coming at us from all sides.”
The country faces many types of cybersecurity threats, including—nation-state intrusions, hacktivists, insider threats, and, the so-called “blended threat” of nation-states using criminal hackers to work for them. To keep up with the hackers, the FBI is evolving, too, Wray said.
The bureau is developing the cyber skills of its workforce and establishing Cyber Action Teams to respond rapidly to threats. The FBI is also embedding cyber agents with international partners to coordinate investigations. He touted recent successes, such as taking down Darknet marketplaces AlphaBay and Hansa Market. The FBI also brought indictments against four hackers who stole information on millions on Yahoo! users.
“While we may not be able to stop all threats before they begin, we can do a lot more in the early stages, at the beginning, to stop threats before they get worse. We can share information. We can identify signatures. We can stop similar attacks from happening elsewhere,” Wray said. “But to do that, we need the private sector to work with us.”
The FBI director said all parties involved in cybersecurity need to “raise our game” as the threats grow.
“Whether we’re in law enforcement, the government, private sector, technology industry, the security field, and academia—we’re going to need to figure out a way to work together and stay ahead of the threat and to adapt to changing technologies and their consequences, both the expected ones and the unexpected ones,” Wray said. “Because at the end of the day, we all want the same thing—which is to protect our systems, protect our innovation, and above all, to protect our people.”
The conference — sponsored by the FBI and Fordham University – included sessions on a variety of cyber-related topics, ranging from botnets and malware to disinformation campaigns and attacks on critical infrastructure.