The FBI is trying to foster a better relationship with companies to address ongoing cybersecurity threats.
Key Details
- As new threats emerge, the FBI wants to build stronger relationships with big business to help it address critical security concerns—particularly from the Chinese government.
- The FBI sees the private sector and tech industries as being particularly vulnerable to security concerns, and yet executives aren’t interested in cooperating, The Wall Street Journal reports.
- FBI director Christopher Wray addressed a gathering of Fortune 500 executives in 2022 to work with the FBI in dealing with cybersecurity threats.
- He notes 2,000 active investigations are happening involving alleged Chinese hacking.
Why It’s Important
There are concerns to be had in regard to how much companies can trust the FBI. There are concerns about corruption, insider trading, and access to information that come from allowing a government agency to access a private company’s private information.
And yet there are reasons they should consider being more open to a working relationship. As The Wall Street Journal notes, infrastructure and intellectual property concerns need to be addressed. Many major corporations suffered worse than they needed to because they didn’t take their cybersecurity issues to the FBI early enough.
Backing up a Bit
When Equifax was hacked in 2015, the company became nervous working with the FBI over concerns about the sweeping nature of the process and the government’s access to its information. Alternatively, tech company WatchGuard Technologies worked directly with the FBI to patch devices affected by Russian-state malware spread in the aftermath of the start of the war in Ukraine. “If working independently, neither side would have been able to achieve the same results as quickly,” says former company representative Sujit Raman.
Given the proven abuses by government groups such as the NSA though, companies have reason to be wary of how access to their materials is used. Apple has been particularly uncooperative in this regard, refusing to unlock an iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooting terror suspects in 2015. As we previously reported, Apple’s December update included end-to-end encryption, which the FBI warned would make its phone access much more difficult.
Notable Quote
“The more our folks are having conversations with the private sector, the more they are debunking myths about what it means to work for the FBI,” Wray tells the Wall Street Journal.