FBI office in San Francisco warns of an increase in cyber crimes

According to the FBI, ransomware threats grow and further disrupt critical services across the country.

The FBI special representative, who is responsible for the Sanjay Virmani field in San Francisco, heads a team of 43 cyber agents and refers to the People's Republic of China.

“They are omnipresent. The threats of them have grown considerably,” said Virmani.

According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, IC3 received over 86,000 extortion complaints in 2024, which was an increase of almost 79% in the previous year.

Criminal groups are aimed at US companies, steal intellectual property and infiltrate government systems.

“They basically position themselves for future disturbing attacks,” said Virmani.

At the RSAC conference, the world's largest cybersecurity conference, which takes place in San Francisco this week, the FBI is increasing its message to companies that are essential for strong cooperation and promptly reporting for the protection of US networks.

Kristi Noem, Secretary of the Ministry of Homeland, also promised more partnerships with leading cyber security companies.

“Instead of just talking about cyber security, we will do it.

Chris Inglis was the first national cyber director during the Biden administration.

“Defense makes progress to be safe. We have a better technology. We have the kind of people whether they are boss officers for information security and a squad of technical experts who are better, a land mile better than 5 to 10 years ago, but the crime continues much faster,” said Inglis.

In a continuous cat and mouse game, the Ministry of Justice, the FBI and other international law enforcement agencies had the recent success in the disturbance of malicious hackers such as the Lockbit Ransomware Group in 2024.

“We were able to receive charges for the main actors. We were able to disrupt part of the structure that took place with the ransomware,” said Virmani.

Despite the growing number of attacks, the FBI still faces challenges with sub -reports.

“If cyber incidents have occurred when individuals submitted a report to IC3, the FBI was able to prevent the money from actually putting the bad actors into their hands,” said Virmani.

Virmani encourages timely reporting to the FBI.

FBI investigators found that only about 20% of the victims of a large ransomware group had reported the attack on law enforcement, a pattern that is consistent across several operations.

According to the FBI, cyber incidents and internet-enabled frauds cost victims of more than $ 16.6 billion in 2024.

The FBI has a dedicated website www.ic3.gov.

It is the central center for reporting on cyber-capable crime.