Dear Friends,
It is my sincere honor to share with you a message from our ADIC Mr. Paul Delacourt.
Partners,
I wanted to take a moment to reach out and share our status with you along with some brief updates. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) has created unprecedented anxiety and hardship not just in America, but across the world. We at the FBI share similar concerns with you and your loved ones. We are focused on the safety and well-being of our employees and their families and trying to do our part to prevent the spread of the virus, while making sure that we can focus on our most critical operations and be ready to answer the bell if or when called upon. Director Wray recently said that, “In many ways, the FBI wrote the playbook on what to do when there is no playbook,” and we are doing our best to think innovatively about how to address the new challenges this pandemic has presented.
In a climate of worry and uncertainty, we want the public to know that there are still some things that they can count on, and the FBI is one of those things: We know that our criminal and national security adversaries are not going to take a day off. We won’t take our eyes off the ball. There have already been reports of individuals and businesses trying to exploit the Coronavirus for profit, and I am proud to tell you FBI-LA made an arrest this week of an individual soliciting investments in a fake cure. I have included the press release, below.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/southland-man-arrested-federal-charges-alleging-fraudulent-investment-scheme-featuring
I am also sharing with you some information that we sent to our personnel about how to remain alert and vigilant during this time: While our adversaries may be dealing with the same health issues, they are also likely looking to exploit new vulnerabilities our safety measures will expose. Ensure that you maintain good operational security, cyber and physical security hygiene, and awareness. Be aware that there is already an increased amount of cyber influence and misdirection occurring on social media and by directed emails. Our adversaries — criminal, terrorist, or intelligence — are looking for potential opportunities to exploit. Don’t let your security posture drop just because this is a new and unfamiliar situation.
CYBER:
Cyber adversaries often take advantage of crisis situations in an attempt to compromise your devices and network accounts while you’re at your most vulnerable. These adversaries include not just criminal fraudsters but also sophisticated state sponsored cyber actors, who are known to leverage realistic and plausible phishing emails and online platforms to steal network credentials and launch attacks against high-value government computing systems. I ask that you all remain alert and on guard for these exploitation attempts, and remember to always:
1) Take a Deep Breath: Stop and think before clicking on a link, opening an emailed file, or downloading an app. Does it sound too good to be true? Is there something off? Scammers and cyber actors capitalize on fear and a sense of urgency: they want to make you believe you must act NOW to stop something bad from happening, and thereby short-circuit your rational thought processes to make you react hastily. Defeat them simply by exercising your common sense.
2) Don’t Trust…Verify: Only trust resources and information you can verify from authoritative or trusted sources. Go directly to the websites of authoritative organizations like the CDC and WHO for information, rather than trusting information or resources offered by unverified third parties. Before downloading or installing apps, check that they are either developed or provided by a trusted organization such as a well-known corporation, NGO, or government agency, and are digitally signed or otherwise verified as coming from that source. If the app is developed by a smaller startup or other unknown entity, check around to see if it is reviewed by a major, reputable news organization or is endorsed by a trusted source such as a major NGO or government agency. If you can’t verify the app’s authenticity, consider whether you really need it!
3) Surf Safely: Rather than clicking on a link from an email, navigate directly to the purported sender’s website or type in the link yourself, to make sure you’re actually going to their website and not a counterfeit site set up to exploit your computer or steal your credentials. If you must click on the link, first hover over it to make sure the link you’re following actually goes to the website you think it does. Beware of URL shortening services (they can make it impossible to know where the link actually takes you) and attempts to fool you by crafting the URL to make it look like it goes to a trusted site when it’s actually taking you to a site hosted somewhere else (e.g. it might take you to fbi.gov.xyz.com instead of fbi.gov).
We know that this situation will end, and while we don’t know how long it will last, we do know that we will get through it together. Continue to take care of yourselves, take care of your families, and take care of those most vulnerable among us.
Regards,
Paul Delacourt
FBI Los Angeles