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class=\"single-article__category-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/news\/threats\/cybercrime\/\"> <span>Cybercrime<\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> The agency\u2019s deployment of additional cyber assistant legal attach\u00e9s comes as it takes on a more proactive approach to combating cybercrime operations and infrastructure. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"single-article__cover-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"single-article__cover\"> <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1\" class=\"single-article__cover-image wp-post-image\" alt decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg?resize=252,168 252w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg?resize=506,337 506w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg?resize=1013,675 1013w, https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-2.jpg?resize=1265,843 1265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1013px) 100vw, 1013px\"><figcaption> OTTAWA, CANADA: The United States Embassy building is viewed from the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel on June 30, 2012 in Ottawa, Canada. (Photo by George Rose\/Getty Images) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"single-article__content\">\n<div class=\"single-article__content-inner has-drop-cap\"> <html readability=\"55.650029827003\"><body readability=\"113.25915018931\"><\/p>\n<p>The FBI is increasing the number of agents deployed to American embassies abroad to focus on cyber-related crime, part of the bureau\u2019s latest effort to improve the way it combats international cybercrime.<\/p>\n<p>The six new positions represent a nearly 40% increase of the FBI\u2019s cyber assistant legal attach\u00e9s (ALATs) and will include new postings in New Delhi, Rome and Brasilia, an agency spokesperson told CyberScoop exclusively. The increase brings the total number of cyber-focused FBI agents deployed to U.S. embassies to 22.<\/p>\n<p>Enabled by digital infrastructure dispersed across the world, cyber criminal operations increasingly involve victims and perpetrators in wildly disparate locations, making it difficult for domestic law enforcement agencies to coordinate their investigations and to collect perishable evidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir playing field, if you will, is the world,\u201d said Brian Abellera, the FBI\u2019s cyber assistant legal attach\u00e9 stationed in Ottawa.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--inline_1 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Cyber assistant legal attach\u00e9s are part of the much bigger legal attach\u00e9 program, which dates to the early 1940s and provides law enforcement and intelligence agencies a mechanism to liaise with their foreign counterparts. The FBI has 63 legal attach\u00e9 offices in embassies and consulates around the world, covering more than 180 countries,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/about\/leadership-and-structure\/international-operations\"> according to the agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The bureau began placing cyber-focused agents in U.S. embassies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/news\/stories\/fbi-deploys-cyber-experts-to-work-directly-with-foreign-partners\">in 2011<\/a>, with agents deployed to Romania, Australia, the Netherlands, Estonia, Ukraine and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>The expansion of the cyber program is part of a broader shift by the FBI and the Department of Justice toward a more proactive approach to combating cybercrime operations and infrastructure, which has led to several major international disruptions and takedowns in recent years. Rather than investigating crime after the fact, U.S. law enforcement is increasingly trying to disrupt the work of criminal groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn days gone by, that might have been heresy,\u201d U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in <a href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/doj-cybercrime-disruption-ransomware\/\">remarks at the RSA security conference<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n<p>That approach is resulting in fewer arrests \u2014 like when law enforcement agencies <a href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/fbi-europol-hive-ransomware-group\/\">seized<\/a> infrastructure belonging to the Hive ransomware group but failed to put any of its members in cuffs. That operation enabled the FBI to obtain decryption keys for victims and avert more than $130 million in ransomware payments, <a href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/fbi-europol-hive-ransomware-group\/\">Monaco said at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--inline_1 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The April 2023 operation to disrupt the Genesis Market \u2014 a robust marketplace selling access credentials for various online services \u2014 is a prime example of the necessity of cyber legal attach\u00e9s, Abellera said.<\/p>\n<p>That operation involved 17 countries and resulted in 119 arrests, 208 property searches and 97 \u201cknock and talk measures,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europol.europa.eu\/media-press\/newsroom\/news\/takedown-of-notorious-hacker-marketplace-selling-your-identity-to-criminals\">Europol said at the time<\/a>. In the United States, the operation spanned 45 FBI field offices, led by the Milwaukee Field Office, working on a scale the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/criminal-marketplace-disrupted-international-cyber-operation\">DOJ called \u201cunprecedented.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The FBI\u2019s Milwaukee office probably could have carried out some of that work on its own and had some disruptive effect, Abellera said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut what if 60 agencies across 16 countries across 10 time zones, within one day, were able to lash up as one unified team and conduct an action together?\u201d he added. \u201cWhere Milwaukee maybe alone would have done a couple operations throughout the US with other 45 field offices, we expand that out and scale it out to over 400 actions across multiple countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FBI\u2019s cyber-focused attach\u00e9s played an important role in coordinating the work of sending police officers around the world to knock on the doors of Genesis users, which resulted in both arrests and also helped to undermine trust in the community that had come to rely on the marketplace.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--inline_1 \">\n<div class=\"ad__inner\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advertisement<\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The operation required careful coordination and a sequence of events spanning multiple time zones that essentially \u201cfollow[ed] the sun,\u201d Abellera said.\u201cIf it were done in a haphazard way,\u201d or if police in one country \u201cjumped the gun,\u201d Abellera said, participants in the criminal scheme may realize \u201csomething may be afoot\u201d and cause evidence in another country to be lost.<\/p>\n<p>Going forward, Abellera said that he is focused on combating international ransomware operations targeting cross-border critical infrastructure, work that has both law enforcement and intelligence collection applications.<\/p>\n<p>All of it is contingent on continued trust and cooperation with the international partners, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no way that the FBI alone can ever have the resources, expertise or reach to maximally impose risk and consequences on adversaries without our international partners,\u201d Abellera said. \u201cWe need them, and that\u2019s why this program is of paramount importance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/body> <\/p>\n<footer class=\"single-article__footer\" readability=\"0.99087591240876\">\n<div class=\"author-card\" readability=\"8\">\n<div class=\"author-card__avatar\">\n<figure class=\"author-card__image-wrap\"> <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-card__image\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ddi.mohflo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies-1.jpg?w=640&ssl=1\" alt=\"AJ Vicens\"> <\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h4 class=\"author-card__name\">Written by AJ Vicens<\/h4>\n<p> AJ covers nation-state threats and cybercrime. He was previously a reporter at Mother Jones. 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{"id":2300,"date":"2024-01-03T18:38:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T18:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/?p=78636"},"modified":"2024-01-03T18:38:55","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T18:38:55","slug":"the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ddi.mohflo.net\/index.php\/2024\/01\/03\/the-fbi-is-adding-more-cyber-focused-agents-to-u-s-embassies\/","title":{"rendered":"The FBI is adding more cyber-focused agents to U.S. embassies"},"content":{"rendered":"