FBI Director Christopher Wray said amid the acceleration of cyberattacks in the past two years, the bureau has focused on three factors to impose costs on cybercriminals and these are identifying the people involved, targeting their infrastructure and going after their money.
“First: To go after the people, we work with like-minded countries to identify who’s responsible for the most damaging ransomware schemes and take them out of the game. That may mean arresting and extraditing them to the U.S. to face justice. Or it may mean prosecution by a foreign partner,” Wray said Wednesday during a cybersecurity conference in Boston.
He highlighted the importance of disrupting the operations of threat actors by taking down their technical infrastructure.
He also cited the need to shut down illegal currency exchanges to disrupt the operations of cybercriminals.
“Third: By going after their money, when we seize virtual wallets and return stolen funds, we hit them where it hurts, taking resources away from the bad guys, helping to prevent future criminal operations,” Wray noted.
Wray discussed the cybersecurity threats posed by Russia, China, North Korea and Iran; the ransomware attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure; the importance of accumulated investigative work against Russian cyberthreats; and the need for speed and scope of attribution.