US: FBI director sees 'parallels' between ransomware threats and 9/11 terrorist attacks

In a news interview on June 4, FBI Director Christopher Wray compared the ransomware threats as similar to security challenges posed by the largest crime scenes in FBI history, the 9/11 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 3,000 Americans and overseas nationals. Highlighting the potential threat posed by cyberterrorism that had partaken in the attacks of 9/11—which the FBI probed under the code name “PENTTBOM,” Wray told WSJ,  “There are a lot of parallels, there’s a lot of importance, and a lot of focus by us on disruption and prevention,” as he pointed to the Russian hackers.

The FBI chief spoke in the context of the recent month’s cyberattack against JBS Foods USA on May 30, the world’s largest meat supplier, and a separate ransomware attack on the US largest refined fuel pipeline company ‘Colonial Pipeline’ on May 9. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s orders were issued by the US Department of Transportation after the pipeline that supplies nearly 45 percent of fuel to the East Coast, was shut down mysteriously. In his first publicly made comments since the hijacks, the FBI chief asserted that there has to be a shared responsibility, not just across government agencies but across the private sector and “even the average American”.

Time and time again, a huge portion of the cyberattacks are traced back to actors in Russia. And so, if the Russian government wants to show that it is serious about this issue, there’s a lot of room for them to demonstrate some real progress, which the United States is not seeing right now—Wray said in the report published June 4. 

The Biden administration had announced that an FBI investigation found that a cybercriminal hacking group ‘DarkSide’ was behind the ransomware attack which had obstructed the fuel supply across the Southeastern United States. A declassified statement from cybersecurity firm Intel 471, jotted in Russian stated: “Due to the pressure from the US, the affiliate program is closed,” referring the intermediary hackers to affiliates that are a pro in compromising the security of the corporate computer systems by holding data hostage.

The Colonial Pipeline paid $4.4 million in ransom to regain access to the operating systems. Both JBS and the pipeline were compromised in security by the Russian-linked hacking groups. The White House expressed concerns about the rising cybercrimes, an issue that they said President Biden plans to bring up with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G7 summit. 

100 different malicious software variants

There are at least 100 different malicious software variants that exist, every single one was responsible for multiple ransomware attacks in the US, Wray said in a report carried on June 4. Further noting that the scale of the issue scale was something that the country “had to come to terms with,” the FBI chief said that the bureau has seen cyberattacks complaints triple over the past year. Its impact, he said, was visible to the American people.

“Now realizing it can affect them when they’re buying gas at the pump or buying a hamburger — I think there’s a growing awareness now of just how much we’re all in this fight together,” the FBI chief said. The Bureau was focused on working with affected companies and the private actors to thwart the future attacks. It is aiming at identifying the encryption keys, which then would enable any US company to actually unlock their data — even without paying the ransom.