♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> this evening at conversation with director of national intelligence at the lbj presidential library. in austin, texas. classified information and democracy.

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the group called the high was responsible for extorting hundreds of millions of dollars from schools, hospitals, and critical infrastructure around the world. fbi director christopher raitt deputy attorney general lisa monico also spoke. the briefing is 25 minutes. [background noises] good morning. i'm joined today deputy attorney general lisa monico fbi director chris ray, assistant attorney general for the criminal division, u.s. attorney for the middle district of florida and representative to the united states raymond. we are here to announce that last night the justice department dismantled an

international ransom or network responsible for extorting and attempting to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from victims in the united states and around the world. note as the high ransom or group this network targeted more than 1500 victims around the world since june of 2021. in ransom or attacks transnational cyber criminals use malicious software to hold digital systems hostage and demand a ransom. height ransom or affiliates employed a double extortion model. first they infiltrate a victim system and still sensitive data. next, the affiliates deployed a malicious software encrypting the victim system, rendering it unusable. and finally they demanded a ransom payment in exchange for a system encryption key and a promise not to publish any stolen data. affiliates targeted critical infrastructures of the nation's most important industries.

in one instance august 2021 hayek affiliates deployed ransom are on computers owned by midwest hospital. at a time when covid-19 was surging in communities around the world the high ransom or attack prevents of the from accepting any new patients. the hospitals also force on paper copies of information is unable to recover its data after paid a ransom. hives most recent victim in the central district of california on or about honor december of year for its most recent victim was attacked around 15 days ago. first year of operation hive extort over one or $2 million in ransom payments from its victims. last summer, fbi agents from the tampa division with the support of the prosecutors in the

criminal division's computer crime and intellectual property section and the middle district of florida infiltrated the high network and began disrupting an attempt to extort victims. for example the fbi disrupted height ransom or attack against the texas school district computer system. decryption keys to the school district saving it for making a 5 million-dollar ransom payment. that same month the fbi height ransom or attack on the louisiana hospital saving the victim from a $3 million ransom payments. also able to attack a food services company. the bureau provided the company with decryption keys and save the victim from a $10 million ransom payment. since july of last year, we provided assistance to over 300 victims around the world helping to prevent approximate $130 million in ransom payments.

our continued investigative efforts led us to to back and computer servers located in los angeles that were used by hive door the critical information. last night, pursuant to court order sees a server. we also receive court authorization and hive darkened net sites and render its services unavailable. this morning, if a high affiliate tries to access the darkened net side this is what they will see. our investigation the criminal conduct applied members remains ongoing. i want to thank all the agents, prosecutors and staff work on this matter. i also want to thank the united states service as well as all of the international partners

including germany and the netherlands as well as our law enforcement partners. cybercrime is a constantly evolving branch. as i have said before the justice department will spare no resource to identify and bring to justice anyone, anywhere who targets the united states with the ransom or attack. we will continue to work to prevent these attacks and to provide support to victims who have been targeted. and together with our international partners we will continue to disrupt the criminal networks that deploy these attacks. now i'm going to turn the podium over too deputy general. >> good morning. thank you mr. attorney general. over the last years attorney general and i have made clear all of the tools at its disposal

work with our partners to attack the ransom or attack from every angle. the departments agents prosecutors in trial attorneys have partnered with law enforcement allies across the globe to track ransom payments through the block chain and sees them back for victims, to dismantle ransom ware networks, to warn targets to branson where threats and to prevent attacks. and, to disrupt the criminal ecosystem that enables the targeting of innocent victims. we have made it clear that we will strike back against cybercrime using any means possible. today's action reflects that strategy. we also have pledged to place victims at the center of our strategy in our mission to

prioritize for the past several months the fbi have been inside the network that ransom or network hide hide the fbi has labeled high atop five ransom or threat. both with technical sophistication and also for the harm of victims. but for all of the groups technical prowess, it could not outfox enter law enforcement coalition. on the notes to hives in a 21st century cyber stakeout, our investigative team lawfully infiltrated hives network and hid there for months. repeatedly swiping decryption keys and passing them on to

victims to free them from ransom her. for months we help victims defeat their attackers and deprive the hive network of extortionate profits. simply put, using lawful means we hacked dhec. we turned the tables on hives and we busted their business model saving potential victim $130 million in ransom payments. successful actions like the ones we announced today require the creative use of civil and criminal authorities. and they require partnerships. among law enforcement to be sure also with victims. should speak clearly to those victims. it pays to come forward and to work with us. we are all in this together. we need your help to stop cyber criminals, to prevent future

victims and in exchange we pledge our tireless efforts to help you protect your systems and to prevent or recover losses. when a victim steps forward it can make all the difference in recovering stolen funds or obtaining decryption keys. so whether you own a small business, or run a fortune 500 company, when the oversee a school district or manage a hospital we can work with you to counter ransom mark to mitigate harm to prevent loss and shoot strike back at the bad guys. although today's announcement marks an important success we will not rest when it comes to hive and its affiliates and other ransom or actors. if you target victims here in the united states the department of justice partner justice and

the fbi are on the job throughout your moment of crisis. i know it to turn program over too director rate. i'm pleased to be here today to represent the fbi to speak about our year end a half long disruption campaign against the high ransom workgroup. hive hurt thousands of victims across the country and around the world until they disrupted them. helping their victims decrypt their networks without hive catching on. and then to date dismantling hives front and back end infrastructure in the u.s. and abroad. this operation was led by our tampa field office assisted by our cyber division team at fbi headquarters and other field office personnel around the

country. but also by fbi personnel stationed around the world to lead the collaboration with our foreign law enforcement partners. often shoulder to shoulder scrutinizing the same data that was essential to today's success. especially the fine work on the german police headquarters, the german federal criminal police, the netherlands national high-tech crime unit illustrates the power of the collaboration can fbi our international partners. the fbi strategy come back ransom or leverages both our law enforcement and intelligence authorities to go after the whole cybercrime ecosystem. the finances their communications, their malware, and their supporting infrastructure. since 2021 that is exactly how we have hit hive room somewhere.

since in the past seven months the have been able to exploit that access to help victims while keeping hive in the dark. using that access to identify hives victims and to author over 1300 victims around the world keys to decrypt their infected networks. preventing at least $130 million in ransom payments and cutting off the gas that is fueling hives fire. are asked to hives infrastructure was no accident or coincidence. across our cyber program we combine our technical expertise, our experience in handling human resources and or other investigative tradecraft to seek out technical indicators that victims can used to protect themselves. and here that focus on obtaining

useful technical indicators led us to hives and decryption keys as provided in need. the investigative team the initial stages of the university. notified the school getting technical information to kick hive off the network or another instance when a case agent pans on special client help the doctor who also managed it security identify his offices vulnerability and his decryption key because no victim is too small. we've also shared keys with many victims overseas through our foreign based legal attaché like we gave a foreign hospital a decryptor they used to get their systems and backup before negotiations even began. possibly saving lives.

now, as he moved to the next phase of the investigation we work with our european partners to seize the infrastructure used by these criminal actors, crippling hives ability to sing again. i also here today to thank those victims and private sector partners who worked with us and make this operation possible by protecting. to demonstrate we can and we will act on the information they share the us. so today's lesson for businesses large and small for hospitals, police departments and really all the many victims of ransom or is this, reach out your local fbi field office today. introduce yourself so you know who to call if you become a victim of cyber attack. we are ready to help you build a crisis response plan so that when an intruder does come knocking you will be prepared.

like the hide victims here, when you talk to us in advance as so many others have you will know how we operate quickly and quietly giving you the assistance, the intelligence and technical information that you want and you need. unfortunately, during the past seven months we found about 20% of highs victims reported potential issues to law enforcement. here, fortunately, we are still to identify and help many victims who did not report. but that is not always the case. when victims report attacks to us we can help them and others too. today's announcement is only the beginning paper going to continue gathering evidence building out our map of hive developers, administrators and affiliates and using that knowledge to drive arrests, seizures, other operations whether by the fbi or other partners here and abroad. while this is yes, a fight to

protect our country our citizens in the fight cybersecurity spans the globe. the fbi presents and partnerships do as well. no matter how much you contort trying to twist and turn to cover your tracks your infrastructure, your criminal associates your money and your liberty are at risk and there will be consequences, thank you. [inaudible] [inaudible]

[inaudible] [inaudible] >> a justice department purging other former white house officials high-ranking intelligence officials to go back technically to review their own files just as a precaution to see if they may accidentally have retained any materials. >> talk about the latter question the former question i'll give a start and then turn over to the director. as you hear from various statements we have made is in the steps we begin with cooperation from private sector victim which is essential for us to succeed. feminist court authorized access to electronic systems. orders to get into the system this is not exactly hiding in

plain sight. this is just hiding. we hide and we watch as they proceed with their attacks. and we discover the keys and we deliver the keys to the victims so they can be encrypted in the system and not pay the ransom. finally, this is what happened last night, take down the infrastructure permit take on the servers that power hives. we can only do that once we locate where the servers are that is what we were able to new very, very recently. and that was the matter at last night. i'm going to turn over too chris. >> i don't think i can give you numbers. but i you a couple things. obviously the sheer number of victims around the world and around the country, the diversity big businesses and small for the number foreign partners involved. the thing to understand about ransom ware variants and

networks like high as you have got the developers who create the malware and the administrators which sounds benign but it's actually like the hub of the variant. they have got all the affiliates. and part of what makes these things challenging and hive is a good example of it, ransom or as a service or cybercrime as a service were sophistication that this first groups have essentially are marketing their cyber expertise to a whole range of less sophisticated but now suddenly dangerous cyber criminals. and that is why this is so significant. as far as arrests, i think anybody involved with hives should be concerned. this investigation is very much still ongoing. we are engaged we call joint sequence for the attorney general described it will be that includes everything from going after their infrastructure. going after their crypto print going after people who work with

them. here, getting the keys in making those available. but it also includes hunting people down with our partners around the world. sometimes this people may face a u.s. criminal justice system. sometimes they may face charges with the many partners who are increasingly with this. >> thank you for doing this for the question on hive and then i have a question for you mr. attorney general. on hive, what is the connection to the russian government at this point in regards to hive? do you believe the russian government is aiding or sheltering people kind hive? and i noted there were not any arrests being announced today. do you anticipate he will be announcing arrests in regards to that? >> clear and to limit ongoing investigation we are not going to be able to discuss any of the particulars of the question you

asked. i'm afraid that's the answer to your second question as well but go ahead. [laughter] >> with regard to the trump invited special counsel, are you considering an effort to coordinate the work of these two special councils such as maybe their timeline for their final reports? so the public can have an apples to apples comparison at the end of this? or do you see that as interfering as special as work? was i don't want to talk about particulars of investigations. particularly not special counsel investigation. as a general matter choose special counsel prosecutors experience in the justice department for they know how the words for they know the departments practices are and i'm fully confident they will resolve these metals one way or the other e- traditions of the

department. for director rick could you talk about how unusual this sort of operation is? has the fbi ever penetrated ransom ware network and provide the keys question and second off topic is someone who deals with classified information everyday without asking you to comment any pending matter if concern the accounting for classified information isn't broken broken? >> so, on the first question we have started to have more and more situations where pleats are able to to the community and tenacity of our personnel get access to keys. i am not sure if we have had one quite at this scale in terms of the sheer number of keys we've been able to get access too.

>> dismantling of the cyber criminal infrastructure and sometimes that involves taking on the dark marketplaces and otr times it involves essentially removing malware from systems but more and more i think that you can expect to see from the fbi and our partners, situations where success, when the impact is achieved by more than just arrest and what we're doing things are getting east to the victims are taking on infrastructure and seizing crypto currency of being much more creative and kind of multidisciplinary know we attacked the problems because i think that's what is called for and i think the director of the new no longer move a cyber strategy that we rolled out a few years ago. the second question, obviously cannot, it in any specific investigation but we have had for quite a number of years in a number of mishandling's investigations that is unfortunately a regular part of

our counterintelligence division and program and people need to be conscious of the rules regarding classified information on appropriate handling. those rules were there for a reason. [background sounds]. >> this evening conversation with the director of national intelligence, at the lbj presidential library coming in austin texas, part of the conference on classified information and democracy. live coverage begins at 730 eastern, on "c-span2" and you can also watch and are free mobile video app, cspan now, or online at cspan . org.

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