As cyber threats evolve, we need to evolve as well.
Christopher A. Wray
The FBI's mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution. That mission is both dual and simultaneous - it is not contradictory.
As Americans, we should all be concerned by the potential for any company beholden to a foreign government - especially one that doesn't share our values - to burrow into the American telecommunications market.
Technology has made life much easier for the good guy - there's no doubt.
All too often, vital electronic evidence has been made unavailable through encryption that doesn't allow for execution of legal process including court-approved search warrants.
Healthy competition is good for the global economy. Criminal conduct is not. Rampant theft is not. Cheating is not.
All American voices are important, and the FBI's Protected Voices videos and resources will help all Americans protect themselves online.
The cyber threat has evolved dramatically since I left DOJ in 2005, partly just reflecting how much the digital world has itself evolved over that time. Back then, 'tweeting' was something only birds did.
It takes an incredibly special person to be willing to put his or her life on the line for the community, and we owe it to our law enforcement heroes to do whatever we can to make their work safer.
Our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis, whether it's election season or not.
We need to hold ourselves accountable for the work we do and the choices we make.
We have no information that indicates that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 presidential election.
Just as our adversaries evolve, so, too, must the FBI.
As a profession, we face unlimited threats with limited resources. We face a lack of trust in some of the communities we serve. We face a whole lot of second guessing and criticism about the work we're doing and the way we're doing it.
We are vested with significant authorities, and it is our obligation as public servants to ensure that these authorities are exercised with objectivity and integrity. Anything less falls short of the FBI's duty to the American people.
The Chinese government's not pulling any punches. They want what we have so they can get the upper hand on us. And they're highly strategic in their approach - they're playing the long game.
The FBI relies on FISA every day in national security investigations to prevent terrorists and foreign intelligence services from harming the United States.
We, the FBI, don't investigate ideology, no matter how repugnant. When it turns to violence, we're all over it.
There's no shortage of opinions about our agency, just like every other agency up here - and just like the Congress. I'd encourage our folks not to get too hung up on what I consider to be the noise on TV and in social media.
The men and women of the FBI are deployed around the clock, all over our country and around the world, identifying and disrupting threats, and pursuing those who would do us harm.
It's going to take all of us working together to protect our economic security and our way of life. The American people expect and deserve no less.
FISA is a powerful tool - and we've got to be sure we're using it properly, at every step in the process. But we couldn't do our jobs without it.
Technology companies have a front-line responsibility to secure their own networks, products, and platforms.
Given our law enforcement authorities, our central role in the Intelligence Community, and the span of our responsibilities - from counterterrorism to counterintelligence to criminal investigations - we're particularly well-positioned to address cyber threats to our national security.
User-controlled default encryption is a real challenge for law enforcement.
We will not stand idly by while any entity - be it a foreign power or corporation - seeks to criminally or unfairly undermine our country's place in the world.
The inability to access evidence or intelligence despite the lawful authority to do so significantly impacts the FBI's ability to identify, investigate, prosecute, or otherwise deter criminals, terrorists, and other offenders.
Some people are skeptical about the value of indictments where a foreign nation-state actor is involved. But in the case of APT10, the indictments marked an important step in publicly exposing China's continued practice of stealing intellectual property to give Chinese firms an unfair advantage in the marketplace.
The FBI holds sacred the rights of individuals to peacefully exercise their First Amendment freedoms.
It takes an incredibly special person to be willing to put his or her life on the line for a complete stranger. And to get up every morning, day after day after day, to do that, I think, is extraordinary.
I can't imagine a situation where, as FBI director, I would be giving a press conference on an uncharged individual, much less talking in detail about it.
America's elections are the foundation of our democracy - so protecting them is a priority for the FBI and our partners.
Terrorists in ungoverned spaces - both physical and cyber - readily disseminate propaganda and training materials to attract easily influenced individuals around the world to their cause. They motivate these individuals to act at home or encourage them to travel.
Our folks at the FBI are working their tails off every day to stop and find criminals, terrorists, and nation-state adversaries.
As the Director of the FBI, I am committed to ensuring that the Bureau is being transparent and responsive to legitimate congressional requests.
What was once a comparatively minor threat - people hacking for fun or for bragging rights - has turned into full-blown economic espionage and extremely lucrative cyber crime.
ISIS uses traditional media platforms as well as widespread social media campaigns to propagate its ideology. With the broad distribution of social media, terrorists can spot, assess, recruit, and radicalize vulnerable persons of all ages in the U.S. either to travel to foreign lands or to conduct an attack on the homeland.
I am very committed to the FBI being agile in its tackling of foreign threats. But I believe you can be agile and still scrupulously follow our rules, policies and processes.
Our adversaries - terrorists, foreign intelligence services, and criminals - take advantage of modern technology to hide their communications; recruit followers; and plan, conduct, and encourage espionage, cyber attacks, or terrorism to disperse information on different methods to attack the U.S. homeland and to facilitate other illegal activities.
To be clear, we do not open investigations based on race, or ethnicity, or national origin. But when we open investigations into economic espionage, time and time again, they keep leading back to China.
I think it's important for the American people to be thoughtful consumers of information and to think about the sources of it and to think about the support and predication for what they hear.
My loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law.
The FBI that I see is people, decent people, committed to the highest principles of dignity and professionalism and respect... Now do we make mistakes? You bet we make mistakes, just like everybody who's human makes mistakes.
My view is that, if any public official or member of any campaign is contacted by any nation-state or anybody acting on behalf of a nation-state about influencing or interfering with our election, then that is something that the FBI would want to know about.
Our mission is simple, but profound - to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution. That mission hasn't changed, and it won't change, not as long as I have anything to say about it.
In everything we do, as long as I have anything to say about it, we're going to follow the facts independently, wherever they may lead, to whomever they may lead, no matter who likes it.
I will say that one of the things that hackers, of all shapes and sizes, prize the most in this world is anonymity and stealth and deniability. And by indicting them publicly, among other things, we strip them of that.
When you can say, I get up in the morning to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution, it keeps people coming back. And I will stack our workforce up against anybody, anywhere, any day.
I would argue that in the cyber arena, the need for private sector partnership is higher than really anywhere else of any program we have. So, the reality is we couldn't do what we do without the private sector, and vice versa.
At the end of the day, our work is what endures.
