HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Honolulu Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation discussed its partnership with the private sector to fight together against cyber threats.
The press conference took place on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
The FBI released its 2021 Internet Crime Report on Tuesday, Mar. 22, which consists of data from 850,000 complaints in 2020.
The report said victims from Hawaii reported losses of over $5 million that came from some investment crimes.
“For over a century the FBI has been investigating crimes and collecting intelligence to protect the American public. If your child gets kidnapped there is no one you rather have on the case than the FBI. When the bad guys commit a crime they prefer to have anyone else except the FBI,” said FBI Special Agent Steven Merrill.
Merrill said the bad guys in cyberspace are often a blended threat where there is often no bright line where cybercriminals’ activity ends and nations’ state activity begins. For instance, the Chinese government runs the most active cyber theft ring in the world.
“They are just as focused on stealing U.S. business secrets as U.S. National Security secrets. Essentially their strategy for catching up to the United States economically and as a global power has been to lie, cheat and steal at every opportunity. They have a massive sophisticated cybertheft program conducting more cyber intrusions than all other nations in the world combined.”
FBI SPECIAL AGENT STEVEN MERRILL
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