FBI director Christopher Wray told a congressional committee last week that China has 50 hackers for each of the FBI’s cyber-centric agents.
Speaking on the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, director Christopher Wray sought to justify the budget request by outlining the threats the bureau is trying to counter.
“As the global superpower is cyber, it’s an important part of the Chinese government’s strategy to outdo us with all-round lying, cheating and stealing,” Wray said. “The scale of the Chinese cyber threat is unmatched. They have a larger hacking program than all other major nations combined, and they have stolen more of our personal and corporate data than any other nation, large or small, combined.”
“To give you an idea of what we’re up against: If the FBI’s cyber agents and intelligence analysts each focused solely on the Chinese threat – looking at nothing but China – the number of Chinese hackers would still be at least 50 to 1 more than FBI cyber personnel. would have been more.”
Wray also highlighted the number of ransomware and similar malware found by the FBI, noting that the Chinese threat is much bigger than most people think, and reminded that China is not the only threat they have to contend with. Adding Iran and North Korea to his statement, Wray said that these nations’ efforts mean “it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish where the threat of the nation-state ends and the threat of cybercrime begins.”
The FBI says the attacks these groups claim are targeted are critical infrastructure and services that ordinary Americans rely on every day. Like hospitals, schools, 911 call centers…
Wray continued, “The FBI has investigations into such devastating attacks in communities large and small across the country. So you will find that we need 192 cyber positions and just over $63 million in our budget request this year.”
Wray pledged to devote that budget to “ensure that the FBI remains the world’s leading cyber-investigation agency by undertaking the fight against adversaries through joint sequential operations and rapid information sharing with the private sector.” The director added that increasing demands for information security resources will help the FBI target online markets for illicit drugs.
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