Category Archives: Christopher Wray

U.S. officials say they’ve cracked Pensacola shooter’s iPhones, blast Apple

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Federal law enforcement officials said Monday they had unlocked the iPhones of the perpetrator of a December terrorist attack at a U.S. Naval base — and sharply criticizing Apple for not granting them access to those encrypted communications. FBI technicians cracked the phones of a Saudi aviation student who killed three U.S. sailors at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, uncovering evidence linking him to an Al Qaeda affiliate, Attorney General William Barr said. Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray urged Silicon Valley companies to write software that allows investigators to access encrypted communications with a warrant, a move that technology firms and security experts have criticized for years. Authorities took their usual claims a step further, though, by criticizing Apple for what they described as effectively standing in the way of their investigation. “We effectively received no help from Apple,” Wray asserted at the press conference. He did not detail the […]

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Facebook claims NSO Group’s lawyers have conflict of interest in WhatsApp case

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In the ongoing legal battle between Facebook and software surveillance company NSO Group, the social media giant is trying to get NSO Group’s legal counsel dismissed because of an alleged conflict of interest. In a court filing made public this week, Facebook asked a federal judge to disqualify law firm King & Spalding from representing NSO Group because the firm previously represented Facebook-owned WhatsApp in a different sealed case that is “substantially related” to the NSO Group one. King & Spalding, an Atlanta-based firm with a range of big corporate clients, has denied there is a conflict of interest, according to the filing. It is the latest twist in a legal tussle that began in October, when Facebook sued NSO Group, alleging that the Israeli company violated a federal anti-hacking law when its malware was used to infect some 1,400 mobile devices, including those of human rights advocates. NSO Group denies the […]

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‘We have to hit the problem the way it hits us’: How the FBI tracks a range of hacking threats

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FBI Director Christopher Wray has been clear to Congress: cyberthreats are outpacing the FBI’s capacity to track them, and the bureau needs more money and people to catch up. Boosting the FBI’s roster of cybersecurity talent, rather than playing whack-a-mole with an expanding docket of threats, is of the essence. “[The cyber] threat has grown exponentially in terms of actors, methods, targets, and so we need personnel and tools there in a big, big way,” Wray told Senate appropriators in May. In fiscal 2020, the FBI is asking Congress for $70.5 million more in funding compared with the prior year for cybersecurity programs, and for 33 more personnel dedicated to the issue. Any new hires would be stepping into an agency that has transformed its approach to cyberspace in the last several years. The FBI has had to get more out of its cybersecurity personnel as the types of malware, and the number of actors willing […]

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FBI director: Protecting 2018 election was a ‘dress rehearsal’ for 2020

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Protecting the 2018 U.S. midterm elections from foreign meddling was a “dress rehearsal for the big show” of the 2020 presidential elections, which adversaries are expected to target, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Friday. “Our adversaries are going to keep adapting and upping their game,” Wray said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that multiple nation-states have learned from Russia’s influence operations in the 2016 presidential election. After the sweeping Russian intervention in 2016 – which also included probing voter databases and breaching and disseminating thousands of Democratic Party emails– federal agencies put an unprecedented amount of resources into defending the 2018 midterms. The 2018 vote passed without any “material impact or interference” on election or campaign infrastructure, Wray said Friday as he hailed “enormous strides” in election security. Now, all eyes are on 2020. If foreign intelligence agencies already have their sights on the 2020 […]

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Cyberthreats rise to the top at Senate hearing on worldwide dangers for U.S.

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In yet another sign that the hacking abilities of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are drawing intense scrutiny from U.S. spy agencies and law enforcement, top federal officials focused on cyberspace Tuesday as part of a broader hearing on the global threats facing the United States. The digital tools and techniques deployed by U.S. adversaries and competitors are “growing in potency and severity,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, we expect these actors and others to rely more and more on cyber capabilities” to advance their interests, Coats said. FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers that nation-states are increasingly collaborating with criminal hackers in a “form of outsourcing that makes it even more of a menace.” The annual hearing gives the public a snapshot of the threats at the forefront of U.S. intelligence chiefs’ minds, and hacking allegedly backed by […]

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U.S. officials say supply-chain threat is ‘very real’ regardless of Bloomberg story accuracy

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FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials continued to push back Wednesday against a recent news story that described a devastating supply-chain attack on major U.S. technology companies, but their testimony in a Senate hearing also emphasized that such threats do remain “very real” in general. “This is a particularly pernicious threat … because it’s very difficult for the average citizen, company or government entity to understand every component that was put into a piece of equipment or network that they’ve purchased,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that also featured FBI Director Christopher Wray. Bloomberg Businessweek reported last week that Chinese operatives had used rice grain-sized chips to compromise motherboards sold by Super Micro Computer (Supermicro), placing a backdoor into many companies, including Apple and Amazon Web Services. The attack, in theory, entails devastating consequences for information security at those companies and beyond. Companies mentioned in the article have issued strongly […]

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FBI launches new ‘Combating Foreign Influence’ website for political campaigns

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With just about two months until Election Day, the FBI created a Combating Foreign Influence guide to “educate the public” and political campaigns about disinformation, cyber attacks and “the overall impact of foreign influence on society,” the agency announced on Thursday. It’s a small public showing for the lead agency responsible for investigating foreign influence operations. Earlier this month, FBI director Christopher Wray outlined a larger non-public effort from the FBI to combat foreign influence. “I can’t describe the full extent of our efforts because of important operational sensitivities,” Wray said during an August 2 White House press briefing. “But our Foreign Influence Task Force works with FBI personnel in all 56 of our field offices. And, even as we speak, we’ve got open investigations with a foreign influence nexus spanning FBI field offices across the country. Make no mistake—the scope of this foreign influence threat is both broad and deep.” […]

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FBI director: Without compromise on encryption, legislation may be the ‘remedy’

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FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that unless the U.S. government and private industry are able to come to a compromise on the issue of default encryption on consumer devices, legislation may be how the debate is ultimately decided. “I think there should be [room for compromise],” Wray said Wednesday night at a national security conference in Aspen, Colorado. “I don’t want to characterize private conversations we’re having with people in the industry. We’re not there yet for sure. And if we can’t get there, there may be other remedies, like legislation, that would have to come to bear.” Wray described the issue of “Going Dark” because of encryption as a “significant” and “growing” problem for federal, state and local law enforcement as well as foreign law enforcement and intelligence agencies. He claims strong encryption on mobile phones keeps law enforcement from gaining access to key evidence as it relates […]

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Encryption advocates rip FBI over inflated encrypted device statistics

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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a strongly worded letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Wednesday, voicing concern that the FBI “repeatedly misled” the public and lawmakers on how many devices it was locked out of due to devices being encrypted. On Tuesday, the FBI admitted that in public speeches and sworn congressional testimony over the last year, it has dramatically overstated the number of encrypted phones it cannot access. “The government has long held discredited views about encryption,” Wyden wrote. “Now we see that the FBI is struggling with basic arithmetic—clearly it should not be in the business of dictating the design of advanced cryptographic algorithms.” Wyden also charged that the FBI “exploited” the 2015 shooting in San Bernardino to push tech companies for a way to bypass encryption during investigations. “We see the same calculations today with the overstatement of inaccessible devices… [the FBI] is either too sloppy in its […]

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House measure asks DHS to share info on potential ZTE cyber threat

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A new House of Representatives measure would direct the Department of Homeland Security to give lawmakers more information on potential cybersecurity threats posed by Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE. The “resolution of inquiry” introduced by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., would task DHS with giving the committee an assessment of cyber risks introduced by any use of ZTE products on federal, state, and local government networks. U.S. intelligence officials have warned of the risk of cyber-espionage from ZTE due to its alleged ties to the Chinese government, and the U.S. government has fined the company for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea. The Pentagon earlier this month told vendors on military bases to stop selling devices from ZTE and another Chinese state-linked telecoms firm, Huawei. ZTE has denied those allegations, saying it values privacy and cybersecurity. In an abrupt divergence from U.S. officials’ warnings, President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted that […]

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