FBI office in San Francisco warns of increase in cyber crimes
The FBI says ransomware threats are growing and continue to disrupt critical services across the country.
FBI Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco field office Sanjay Virmani, leads a team of 43 cyber agents, and points to the People's Republic of China.
"They are pervasive. The threats from them have grown significantly," said Virmani.
According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, IC3 received over 86,000 extortion complaints in 2024, an increase of nearly 79% over the prior year.
Criminal groups are targeting U.S. businesses, stealing intellectual property, and infiltrating government systems.
"They're basically positioning themselves for future disruptive attacks," said Virmani.
At the RSAC conference, the world's largest cybersecurity conference, taking place this week in San Francisco, the FBI is reinforcing its message to businesses that strong collaboration and timely reporting are essential to protecting U.S. networks.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also promised more partnerships with leading cybersecurity companies.
"Instead of just talking about cyber security, we're going to do it. You're going to have a seat at the table that will be much bigger and will help you partner with us in a way that really will make sure that there's consequences in place for bad actors," said Noem.
Chris Inglis was the first national Cyber Director during the Biden Administration.
"The defenses are making progress to be sure. We have better technology. We have the kind of people, whether they're chief information security officers and a cadre of technical experts who are better, a country mile better than they were 5-to-10 years ago, but the offense is proceeding much more quickly," said Inglis.
In a continuous cat and mouse game, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and other international law enforcement agencies have had recent success in disrupting malicious hackers like the LockBit ransomware group in 2024.
"We were able to get charges on the main actors. We were able to disrupt some of the structure that was taking place with the ransomware," said Virmani.
Despite the growing number of attacks, the FBI continues to face challenges with underreporting.
"When cyber incidents have happened, when individuals have gone and filed a report to IC3, the FBI has been able to stop funds from actually getting to the hands of the bad actors," said Virmani.
Virmani is encouraging timely reporting to the FBI.
FBI investigators found that only about 20% of a major ransomware group's victims had reported the attack to law enforcement, a pattern consistent across multiple operations.
The FBI says in 2024, cyber incidents and internet-enabled frauds cost victims more than $16.6 billion.
The FBI has a dedicated website www.IC3.gov.
It's the central hub for reporting cyber-enabled crime.
