The arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange marks the first step toward trying one of the most prominent cyber crimes in American history and his charges to commit computer intrusion are more common theses days than one would think. With cyber threat actors making a living off of hacked information, it should come as no surprise that U.S. government intelligence agencies are shifting focus and resources to address the issue which includes $15 billion set aside from the president’s budget for cybersecurity-related activities.
Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report notes this especially true for large companies with enterprise ransomware up 12% in 2018. According to M.K. Palamore, San Francisco’s head of cybersecurity at the FBI, the agency alerts companies on a weekly basis of cyber threats. “We’re still the number one entity in notifying the private sector of being a victim of a breach,” Palamore addressing the audience Monday at the Forbes CIO Summit in Half Moon Bay, California.
Palamore’s Northern California jurisdiction stretches from Silicon Valley to Eureka, where the FBI has seen a high volume of cyberscurtiy threats and attacks that are either financially motivated criminal intrusions or national cyber intrusions. “We spend a lot of time diving into what a bad day looks like for your CSO and CIO,” said Palamore.