FBI

The FBI has a full plate: fighting public corruption, organized and white-collar crime and domestic and foreign terrorism; solving violent crimes; protecting civil rights; neutralizing national security threats, espionage and counterintelligence; and mitigating threats of weapons of mass destruction, among other responsibilities. And one part of the bureau is growing to protect the nation against cyber threats.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) announced it is stepping up efforts to combat the risks of adversarial influence campaigns against American democracy. Together with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI, the ODNI will give a classified briefing to election officials in every U.S. state on February 16 and 18.

The FBI recently awarded a $100 million, multi-award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for Tactical Mesh/Mobile Ad Hoc Network Systems to support the bureau’s Operational Technology Division.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) on June 23 identified CryptoWall as the most current and significant ransomware threat targeting U.S. individuals and businesses. In the 14 months since the malicious software first appeared, the IC3 received 992 CryptoWall-related complaints, with victims reporting losses totaling more than $18 million, according to the FBI warning.

The financial impact to victims goes beyond the ransom fee itself, which is typically between $200 and $10,000. Many victims incur additional costs associated with network mitigation, network countermeasures, loss of productivity, legal fees, IT services and/or the purchase of credit monitoring services for employees or customers.

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) views cyberspace as one of the bureau’s top priorities across its entire mission set. Not only is economic national security threatened from cyberspace, it also may hold clues to deterring and preventing crimes—if the bureau can exploit it effectively.

“Cyber touches everything I’m responsible for,” said FBI director James Comey. “It’s not a thing, it’s a way.” Comey described the important of cyberspace at the final plenary session of the AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit 2014, held September 18-19 in Washington, D.C.

The FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system went live last week, replacing the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System and improving accuracy. According to experts, the new system offers 99.6 percent correct identification versus 92 percent with the former. The NGI enables automation of 93 percent of searches. Other upgrades include connections with the National Palm Print System, an iris-modality repository and capabilities for more mobile detections.

The FBI, Washington, D.C., has named Richard McFeely executive assistant director of the criminal, cyber and response services branch; and Ronald Hosko assistant director of the criminal investigative division.

Keith L. Bennett has been named assistant director of the FBI's Inspection Division, Washington, D.C.

U.S. government agencies continue to expand their biometric identity management capabilities and their ability to share biometrics data among the various agencies and international partners, according to government officials speaking at AFCEA's Homeland Security Conference in Washington, D.C.