Category: Security

Source: US FBI

Among the biggest threats Director Wray emphasized at the event is the counterintelligence threat from the Chinese Communist Party. “I’ve been very vocal since early in my tenure that there is no country—underline no country—that represents a broader, more severe counterintelligence threat to the United States than the People’s Republic of China,” Director Wray said.

Key to the FBI’s ability to continue to keep Americans safe from these threats, including terrorism, espionage, and cyber attacks, Director Wray said, is renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

“702 authority is vital, absolutely vital—not important, not nice-to-have—vital,” Director Wray said, explaining that Section 702 is authority that allows the Intelligence Community to conduct targeted surveillance of non-U.S. persons located abroad in national security investigations.

The government uses the information collected under Section 702 to protect the United States and its allies from hostile foreign adversaries, including terrorists, spies, and malicious foreign nation-state cyber actors.

Source: US FBI

Source: US FBI

On August 29, the FBI and the Justice Department announced a multinational operation to disrupt and dismantle the malware and botnet known as Qakbot.   
 
The action, which took place in the U.S., France, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Latvia, and the United Kingdom, represents one of the largest U.S.-led disruptions of a botnet infrastructure used by cybercriminals to commit ransomware, financial fraud, and other cyber-enabled criminal activity.  
 
“The FBI neutralized this far-reaching criminal supply chain, cutting it off at the knees,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The victims ranged from financial institutions on the East Coast to a critical infrastructure government contractor in the Midwest to a medical device manufacturer on the West Coast.”

Source: US FBI

“The Safe Online Surfing program is a great way for teachers and families to prepare students for their journey through cyberspace,” said Ken Hoffman, who leads the FBI’s national community outreach program. “The interactive platform helps kids build a digital defense against predators and bullies while teaching them how to be responsible cyber citizens.” 

While taking the course, students guide a robot avatar through six thematic areas, answering true/false, multiple choice, and matching questions along the way. After completing all levels, students will take a final exam.  

Since the program’s launch in 2012, more than 1.6 million students have participated in the SOS challenge. 

The SOS website and its activities are open year-round, both at home and in the classroom. The challenge opens on September 1 and runs through May. Each month during this timeframe, the classes with the top exam scores nationwide will receive an FBI-SOS certificate and, when possible, receive a congratulatory visit from FBI personnel.  

To participate in the challenge, teachers must register their classes at sos.fbi.gov. Teachers manage their students’ participation in the program; the FBI does not collect or store any student information.

Learn more and register your class at sos.fbi.gov. 

Source: US FBI

Source: US FBI

Moorer, who recently retired from the Navy and concluded his internship, encourages fellow wound warriors to apply, nothing that “I don’t think there’s a better program for you to go get on-the-job experience, exchange knowledge with other people who are very knowledgeable, and get an excellent job opportunity that could end up being the perfect career for you.

Eligibility 

The FBI Wounded Warrior Internship Program is part of the Defense Department’s Operation Warfighter program. This DOD initiative links wounded warriors with federal government internships so that they can gain work experience while recuperating from a wound, illness, or injury. 
 
The program is incredibly competitive, but at this time, there’s no limit on the number of qualified servicemembers who may be selected for internships each year, Keffer said. Thirteen FBI interns are expected to onboard by the end of fiscal year 2023, according to the program. 
 
As long as a field office or Headquarters division has an operational need—and if they believe an applicant is the right fit for the position—the FBI’s Human Resources Division will make the match.  
 
To qualify for the program, a servicemember must: 

• Be an active-duty servicemember, a mobilized reservist, or a member of the Army or Air National Guard
• Be a U.S. citizen
• Be assigned to a Wounded Warrior unit, detachment, or regiment
• Hold an active Top Secret security clearance
• Have at least six months remaining on their service commitment
• Have the ability to travel to and from their assigned worksite
• Meet FBI security and suitability requirements

Interested servicemembers can reach out to their Operation Warfighter coordinator to begin the application process.

Source: US FBI

FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Forces across the country work throughout the year to locate victims and their traffickers. Often, victim specialists are embedded in operations. They serve as a liaison between the victims and FBI agents. They also help victims find services to rebuild their lives. The FBI’s Victim Services Division has a team of child and adolescent forensic interviewers, or CAFIs, who are specially trained interviewers skilled at gathering evidence without further traumatizing children and others with mental or emotional disabilities. These multi-disciplinary teams work with state and local partners to make resources available for victims, which might include counseling, medical services, housing, or job placement.  

“Our victim specialists, victim service coordinators, child and adolescent forensic interviewers, and other victim service professionals work collaboratively with special agents to ensure a trauma-informed, victim-centered approach is taken when engaging with victims,” said Regina Thompson, assistant director of the Victim Services Division. “This is especially important when engaging with victims of human trafficking as it is a very complex, traumatic crime.”  

Source: US FBI

FISA Section 702 Reauthorization 

Director Wray said that the authorities granted to the FBI by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, are key to the Bureau’s ability to crack down on cybercrime around the world. 

“Section 702 is critical to our ability, in particular, to obtain and action cyber intelligence,” he said. “With 702, we can connect the dots between foreign threats and targets here in the U.S., searching information already lawfully within the government’s holdings so that we can notify victims who may not even know they’ve been compromised, sometimes warning them even before they get hit.” 

Wray stressed that the FBI’s Section 702 authorities only let it collect information on foreign targets of intelligence surveillance—and not U.S. citizens. 

More than half of the FBI’s data reporting under Section 702 has targeted cybercriminals, Wray said. And the Bureau’s 702 authorities yielded 97% of the Bureau’s “raw technical reporting on cyber actors” in the first half of 2023, he added. 

“That’s all intelligence that we can action through threat alerts and defensive briefings,” he said. 
Wray said the FBI’s Section 702 authorities also powered cybersecurity wins, including: 

• Identifying the perpetuator of the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and recovering most of the $4.4 million ransom the company paid in response. 
• Saving an American nonprofit organization who fell victim to a ransomware attack and recovering their data so they didn’t need to give Iranian cybercriminals a dime. 
• Sniffing out attempts by Chinese cybercriminals to hack into an American transportation hub before they could wreak havoc. 

“The intelligence we obtain through our 702 authorities is absolutely vital to safeguarding the American public and American businesses,” he said. “Now, those of you who know me know that I’m not the kind of guy that is prone to overstatement, so when I say it’s vital—it’s not helpful, it’s not important, it’s vital—you know that I mean it.”

Source: US FBI

Source: US FBI

An indictment was unsealed yesterday in the Northern District of Texas charging two co-founders of Blueacorn, a lender service provider, in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 relief money guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

According to court documents, Nathan Reis, 45, and Stephanie Hockridge, 41, also known as Stephanie Reis, both of Puerto Rico and previously of Arizona, allegedly submitted false and fraudulent PPP loan applications on behalf of themselves and their businesses, including by fabricating documents that they submitted in their loan applications in order to receive loan funds for which they were not eligible.

The indictment also alleges that Reis and Hockridge, who are married, co-founded Blueacorn in April 2020, purportedly to assist small businesses and individuals in obtaining PPP loans. In order to obtain larger loans for certain PPP applicants, Reis and other co-conspirators allegedly fabricated documents, including payroll records, tax documentation, and bank statements. Reis and Hockridge allegedly charged borrowers illegal kickbacks based on a percentage of the funds received.

As part of the alleged scheme, Reis, Hockridge, and others expanded Blueacorn’s operations through lender service provider agreements (LSPAs) with two lenders. Under the LSPAs, Blueacorn collected and reviewed PPP applications from potential borrowers on behalf of the lenders and worked with the lenders to submit applications to the SBA in exchange for a percentage of the fees that the SBA paid to the lenders for approved PPP loans. Blueacorn also had a program called “VIPPP” in which Hockridge and others offered a personalized service to help potential borrowers complete PPP loan applications. Reis and Hockridge allegedly recruited co-conspirators to work as VIPPP referral agents and coach borrowers on how to submit false PPP loan applications. In order to obtain a greater volume of kickbacks from borrowers and percentage of lender fees from the SBA, Reis, Hockridge, and their co-conspirators submitted PPP loan applications that they knew contained materially false information.

Reis and Hockridge are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton for the Northern District of Texas; Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; Special Agent in Charge Chris Altemus of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Dallas Field Office; Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR) Brian Miller; Special Agent in Charge John Ellwanger of the Western Division, Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (FRB-OIG); and Inspector General Hannibal “Mike” Ware of the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG) made the announcement.

FBI, IRS-CI, SIGPR, FRB-OIG, and SBA-OIG investigated the case.

Acting Assistant Chief Philip Trout of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, Trial Attorneys Elizabeth Carr and Ryan McLaren of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS), and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Weybrecht for the Northern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.

MLARS’s Bank Integrity Unit investigates and prosecutes banks and other financial institutions, including their officers, managers, and employees, whose actions threaten the integrity of the individual institution or the wider financial system.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s prosecution of fraud schemes that exploit the PPP. Since the enactment of the CARES Act, the Fraud Section has prosecuted over 200 defendants in more than 130 criminal cases and has seized over $78 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/ppp-fraud.

In May 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Justice Department in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, visit www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.