FBI Director Christopher Wray Discusses National Security Threats Posed By Foreign Adversaries

well thanks thanks Jason uh one of the things about being brothers-in-law is that it comes brings with it a a certain degree of mutually assured uh destruction uh so I appreciate the nice introduction uh I will say that with the house taking up reauthorization of fisa section2 just this week it is timely that I'm in front of you today uh this committee is as I understand it the oldest standing committee in the ABA and has for more than 60 years committed to educating the bar and the public on the importance of the rule of law uh in preserving both the freedoms of democracy and our national security principles that we at the FBI have always strived to adhere to principles that I believe set the American legal system and our law enforcement agencies apart from our adversaries so that brings me to the first topic I'd like to discuss today which is the evolving National Security landscape today's national security threads are more complex and sophisticated than ever we're seeing hostile nation states becoming more aggressive in their efforts to steal our secrets and our Innovation Target our critical infrastructure export their repression to our Shores and front and center is China the def finding threat of Our Generation to put it simply the CCP is throwing its whole government at undermining the security and economy of the rule of law World China's hacking program is larger than that of every other major Nation combined in fact if you took every single one of the FBI's cyber agents and intelligence analysts and focus them exclusively on China forget Russia forget ransomware forget North Korea forget all the other stuff China's hackers would still outnumber FBI cyber Personnel by at least 50 to one and it's not just cyber of course it's traditional Espionage economic Espionage foreign malign influence election interference and transnational repression often working in tandem they recruit human sources to Target our businesses using insiders to steal the same kinds of innovation and data their hackers are targeting they're engaging in corporate deception hiding beijing's hand in transactions joint ventures and Investments again all with the same goal they're exporting their repression efforts and human rights abuses targeting threatening harassing those who dare question their legitimacy and Authority even outside of China including right here in the United States we've seen professors and students on American campuses subjected to intense almost Mafia style pressure when they say things the CCP doesn't like using their massive cyber operation to keep tabs on how dissonants in America are exercising their first amendment rights online and of course the PRC plays the long game China's hackers have been positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real world harm to American citizens and communities China's sponsored hackers prepositioned for potential cyber attacks against us oil and natural gas companies all the way back in 2011 today today we're seeing China's increasing buildout of offensive weapons within our critical infrastructure setting up persistent PRC access in our critical sectors like telecommunications Energy Water poised to attack whenever Beijing decides the time is right say when the PRC decides to invade Taiwan and the Chinese government wants to our military response because low blows against civilians aren't just uh a possibility in the event of a conflict low blows are actually part of China's plan earlier earlier this year the FBI and our partners exposed China sponsored hackers known as volt typhoon hiding inside our networks the volt typhoon malware enabled China to hide among other things pre-operational reconnaissance and network exploitation against our critical infrastructure now happily working with our partners the FBI ran a court authorized on network operation to shut down volt typhoon and the access it enabled that operation was an important step but there's a lot more PRC cyber threat in a lot more places out there and of course everybody here is well aware that China is hardly the only adversary we're up against Russia and Iran are also determined to use every available tool at their disposal to take aim at things that we all hold secret sacred our freedoms our prosperity our democratic Norms Russia is a very sophisticated adversary and they remain a top cyber threat the Russian government continues to invest heavily in their cyber operations in part because they see cyber as an asymmetric weapon to keep up with us like China Russia continues to Target critical infrastructure including things like underwater cables and Industrial Control Systems both in the United States and around the world and since its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine we've seen Russia conducting reconnaissance on the US Energy sector now adding to that concern is that the Russians like our other adversaries don't care if their cyber campaigns affect civilians you can just look back at what happened in 2017 when Russia's military used the not Peta malware to hit Ukraine Ian critical infrastructure well they targeted Ukraine but ended up also hitting systems throughout Europe plus the US plus Australia even some systems within their own borders showing the same wanting disregard for civilian safety through cyber that of course we're now seeing on display on the battlefield itself they shut down a big chunk of global logistics and ultimately their recklessness ended up causing more than 10 billion dollars in Damages that's with a B billion dollars maybe the most damaging Cyber attack in history and Russia continues its campaign to Target our secrets especially our military technology in a variety of ways from traditional spying to sophisticated cyber intrusions signals collection platforms and other technical means and then you got Iran which should not be underestimated they too are a very sophisticated and very aggressive cyber adversary and continue to engage in Brazen Behavior directed at us in 2021 an Iranian sponsored group conducted a Cyber attack on a children's hospital here in the United States they're also one of only two countries the other being North Korea to have conducted a destructive Cyber attack inside the United States on on top of that in recent years individuals associated with Iran have plotted to assassinate a former US National Security advisor right here on American soil and like China they leverage covert means including their cyber capabilities to Target dissidents and conduct transnational repression again right here in the US an American journalist on us soil has been targeted multiple times by Iranian intelligence officials including most recently for assassination last year we announced that the FBI and her Partners had disrupted that assassination attempt which Iran tried to carry out using an organized crime group I have no doubt that Iran's going to continue to try to evade International sanctions by stealing our military technology through cyber hacking and illegal technology transfers and of course it Remains the world's leading State sponsor of terrorism and that brings me to the final threat that I want to talk about today and that's terrorism terrorism is National Security challenges we face and it Remains the FBI's number one priority I've been very public in saying that at a time when the terrorism threat was already elevated the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans inside the United States to a whole another level one big reason for that is the steady drum beat of calls for attacks that we've seen since October 7th from a veritable roges gallery of foreign terrorist organizations groups ranging from Hezbollah to Al-Qaeda to Isis against America and our allies Hezbollah has publicly expressed its support and praise for Hamas and threatened to attack us interests in the region Al-Qaeda issued its most specific call to attack the United States in the past 5 years aqap al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula called on jihadists to attack Americans and Jewish people everywhere and foreign terrorists including Isis Al-Qaeda and their adherence have renewed calls for attacks against against Jewish communities here in the United States and across the West in statements and in propaganda now as this group probably knows these are groups that haven't always seen eye to eye and that's probably an understatement now United in their calls for attacks on us given those calls for Action we cannot and do not discount the possibility that foreign terrorists May exploit the conflict to carry out an attack and while we continue to be concerned about individuals or small groups drawing some kind of Twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home the foreign terrorist threat and the potential for a coordinated attack here in the Homeland like the Isis K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall Just a couple weeks ago is now increasingly concerning October 7th and the conflict that's followed are going to feed a pipeline of radicalization and mobilization for years to come now there's a lot of National Security experience represented in this room many of you will remember when our government our country was almost exclusively focused on the fight against terrorism in the 9/11 era against Al-Qaeda or Isis in its height say 2015 2016 and of course everybody here will be familiar with the intelligence community's more recent and much discussed pivot to hard targets and great power competition well what distinguishes the current moment is the breadth of National Security threats that we're facing all at once none of the threats our country our allies are facing and confronting is going away in fact the threats are only growing bigger on the nation state side China Russia Iran they're doubling down and heavily investing in their cyber Espionage and foreign malign influence operations and they are not remotely constrained by the rule of law they're tasking criminals and private sector organizations as strategic weapons against us whether to hack our critical infrastructure steal our military Secrets or gain an economic advantage against our businesses all that all that at a time when the terrorist threat is very much still with us and as I said earlier has reached a whole another level after October 7th America's adversaries are not pulling any punches they're coming at us with everything they've got so this is not the time for us to hang up our gloves or take away the tools we need to punch back and that brings me to what the FBI bi is doing to stay ahead of and strategically disrupt those threats our focus is not only on whether we've got the resources the money and the right talent to deal with those threats to grow to meet the challenges of the next five 10 years but also whether we've got the necessary tools to combat our adversaries and one tool that is indispensable to our efforts to combat threats posed by foreign aders Aries is one that's going to expire in just a couple weeks if Congress does not act and that's our fisa section 702 authorities 702 allows us to stay a step ahead of foreign actors located outside the United States who pose a threat to our national security and the expiration of our 702 authorities would be devastating to the FBI's ability to protect Americans from those foreign threats now we are glad that so many members of Congress support this critical tool and our use of it and recognize that the value of 702 is pretty much Undisputed whether it's to protect our critical infrastructure find victims and get them the help they need or detect foreign terrorists overseas directing an operative here to carry out an attack in our own backyard and crucial to our ability to use 702 to protect Americans is our ability to review intelligence promptly and efficiently through queries now I've already talked about how the PRC is pre-positioning on critical infrastructure across the United States I'll just pick one example us person queries were key to discovering where Chinese hackers had successfully compromised Network infrastructure at a Transportation Hub here in the United States allowing us to alert the network operators so they could mitigate the intrusion who knows how much damage those hackers could have caused not just monetarily but in the disruption and maybe even the safety of Americans lives effective and prompt notification to victims like those hinge on our ability to conduct us person queries of our existing 702 collection in another just one recent cyber case for instance 702 allowed the FBI to alert more than 300 victims in every state and countries around the world many of those notifications made possible because of us person queries and US person queries in particular May provide the critical link that allows us to identify an intended target or build out the network of attackers so we can stop them before they strike and just like in cyber us person queries continue to be key to identifying terrorists in the Homeland helping us find out who they're working with and what they're targeting the intelligence we may need to stop them before they kill Americans so while it is imperative that we ensure this critical Authority does not lapse we must also not undercut the effectiveness of this essential tool with a warrant requirement or some similar restriction paralyzing our ability to tackle fast-moving threats now contrary to what a lot of folks are saying about the constitutionality and legality of us person queries the law and the Fourth Amendment simply do not require a warrant in order for the FBI to query 702 data you don't have to take my word for it multiple federal district courts and appell courts have considered the issue and no court has ever held that a warrant is required for the FBI to conduct us person queries to Blind ourselves from information that's already lawfully in our Holdings and when the foreign intelligence surveillance Court renews the 702 program every year not once has it found that the law requires a warrant to conduct us person queries and if the appetite for a warrant is born out of compliance concerns I can wholeheartedly say that there are plenty of ways to ensure compliance without paralyzing us in our ability to move fast we've proven that I have been unequivocal that the compliance incidents we've had in the past are unacceptable and in response we've undertaken a whole host of reforms to ensure that we are good stewards of this Authority now if you look at the compliance reviews conducted by the Fisk by the foreign intelligence surveillance court and the Department of Justice on queries that were run after we put in place our reforms let me say that again the compliance reviews conducted on queries run after we put in place our reforms both the Fisk and doj have recognized that our reforms have resulted in substantial improvements hitting compliance rates well into the high 90% range and we're going to keep looking for ways to push that number even higher so if there's no constitutional legal or compliance necessity for a warrant requirement then Congress would be making a policy choice to require us to Blind ourselves to intelligence it's in our Holdings and if that's the path that's chosen I can just tell you that it's going to have real world consequences on our ability to disrupt all those threats I outlined and our ability to protect the American people to take for example a foreign terrorist organization like Isis or Al-Qaeda legally or illegally sending an operative into the United States to conduct an attack us person queries on the foreign terrorist Communications are how were a able to potentially learn the extent of what they're planning and how imminent it may be requiring a warrant for us person queries which are typically conducted at the nency of an investigation at a time when we usually can't establish probable cause or demonstrate exigency where time is of the essence to get ahead of the bad guys would be a deliberate and in my view shortsighted choice to Blind us to the threat of a foreign terrorist in the US planning and even executing an attack the consequences of tying our hands are not merely hypothetical just last year we discovered that a foreign terrorist had communicated with a person we believed to be in the United States only by querying that us person's identifiers in our 702 collection did we find important Intelligence on the ser seriousness and urgency of the threat and less than a month after that initial query we disrupted that us person who had turned out had researched and identified critical infrastructure sites in the US and had already acquired the means to conduct an attack if we'd had to obtain a warrant to conduct that initial query based on what we knew at that time there is no way we could have met a probable cause standard or even an exigency exception and if we hadn't done that query we would have lost valuable time we needed to get ahead of that potential attack bottom line a warrant requirement would be the equivalent of rebuilding the pre- 911 wall I saw the consequences of that policy Choice 22 years ago I can tell you I've spoken with families of victims of that horrific attack and now two decades later I can assure you that none of our adversaries are holding back or tying their own hands whether to attack us to steal from us to put American National Security our Economic Security American lives at risk so among other things we need lawyers folks like you who are committed to educating the bar and the public on on the rule of law and on our national security to explain what's law and what's policy what a warrant is and what it isn't and to help illuminate the consequences of purposely choosing to limit the American intelligence Community from accessing key and timely information about our foreign adversaries because we're in crunch time when it comes to reauthorizing this vital Authority and as the threats to our homeland continue to evolve the agility and effectiveness of 702 will be essential to the FBI's ability really our mandate from the American people to keep them safe for years to come and we owe it to them to make sure that we've got the tools that we need to do that so thank you for having me I think I've got time maybe for a few questions so thank you so so we have time for two or three questions um ask anyone has a question raise your hand when you're called on uh state your name affiliation speak up so people can hear you and please limit yourself to a brief question so um questions Glenn thank you very much Glen gell um as much as I'd like to ask a question about something other than 702 I'm not able to do so uh I I was struck by your comment just now about rebuilding the wall and wonder if you can just expand on that because I think all of us around the room in the room understand uh your concerns about the as you said the effect that would have a winding you to information already in your possession but can you com sure uh I appreciate the question so to me if you look back at 911 I mean I vividly remember this I was heck I was in FBI headquarters on 911 itself I spent an awful lot of my time during some of the doj St that Jason was talking about uh spending time with the families of the 911 victims um and of course the question in that era was well how could this happen how could 3,000 innocent people get killed like this and pretty quickly one of the things that was uncovered was that there had been this wall that essentially prevented the US government from connecting the dots from sharing information and people said well that's the crazy this damn thing how on Earth could they build this wall well if you go back and look at it well-intentioned people not because the Constitution required it not because the law required it but people maybe well-intentioned made a what they thought was a Prudential choice to essentially separate those things and to Blind the left hand from the right hand and people say how could that happen well I'll tell you how it could happen because what we're seeing right now is an effort again not because the Constitution requ requires it not because the law requires it not because compliance concerns require it to essentially again put in place a barrier between our ability to connect the dots and the thing that makes it so pernicious in the current environment is today's threats are moving at a faster and faster clip if you go back and look at 911 that was an attack that was plotted over months by those attackers today's terrorist threats are moving at the speed of social media the Cyber threats hours forget days hours make a difference in how fast you can get to a victim and notify them so they can mitigate an intrusion before real world consequences happen so speed are is of the essence and on top of that the number of dots that are out there are often fewer in today's threats than there were during that environment so the ability to lose one dot means essentially potentially losing the ability to prevent the threat uh altogether and so again uh well-intentioned people but people who are making I think in my view a misguided choice and that's what it is I understand that people make these choices based on their personal views based on whatever motivates them I can just tell you as the FBI director that ain't my view I think we have a duty to say to the American I think the American people expect us to say that we're going to do everything we can within the Constitution within the law to keep them safe and I don't want to be and I'm not going to be the one who looks some family in the eye and says there was something we could have done that was fully lawful fully constitutional but we chose not to do it and now this is what's happened so that's what I meant by that another question from uh Mary Smith okay um director what are your thoughts on threats to our democracy and what can we lawyers do to help so there are a lot of different kinds of threats to our democracy um you know from our end on the FBI end we focus on sort of specific kinds of them um so we look at particularly foreign threats foreign influence operations foreign cyber attacks um and that's one piece of it and certainly we've already seen Russia and other countries Iran China uh get in the act of trying to engage in malign influence operations which occur all year long and election interference operations during you know each successive election cycle so there's that piece of it uh we of course also uh over decades investigate you know everything from voter fraud to voter suppression to campaign Finance violations and those while a very different kind of case and Authority those also in their own way represent threats to our democracy increasingly over the last several years we've started to see an additional threat which is uh threats of violence against everything from government officials of All Sorts uh all the way to election workers and so that's a whole another threat that we're trying to contend with and so those are the lenses that the FBI uh comes in but there I think the the other part of your question that I appreciate is that there is a role here for people outside of law enforcement uh increasingly we're seeing the threat of uh like I said of information Warfare uh and there is a role for lawyers and the frankly the public themselves to be Discerning and thoughtful consumers of information um and I think there's a a place for everybody everybody from media Outlets to uh universities to lawyers to just individual uh members of the citizenry to take on some responsibility for as I said being thoughtful consumers of information uh and thoughtful um stewards of our democracy another question yes sir Mr Mark Zade one threat that you didn't mention was that of anomalous Health incidents or ahis uh full disclosure I represent a lot of American personel including FBI officials who have been diagnosed with tbis and are receiving medical treatment from the US government for it and just simple question of what if anything the FBI is doing that you can discuss to try and pursue those who we believe are criminally attacking or person well I won't uh given your your role you will be well familiar with the i the icc's assessment um of of the origin of the tax but let me be clear uh I am firmly convinced uh and I don't need any persuading that the uh the symptoms and experiences that uh both our employees and other employees uh of the US government our experience are are very real and very serious that's not an open question the the the harder part is figuring out just what caused it and whether a foreign adversary is responsible in some way and we continue throughout the US government to do work on this and to continue to try to pursue leads that come in and so forth so that that work continues as not really much I could talk about in a setting like this on that but then we're also trying to make sure that we're very focused on um doing whatever we can to try to ensure that our employees have uh the care that they I think very much deserve uh the FBI didn't initially get the same Authority for example that some of the other agencies had gotten that was changed and now doj uh is I think imminently supposed to be putting out regulations that would allow some of these benefits to start flow blowing I think that needs to happen as quickly as possible uh so we're kind of going at it on two fronts one is the uh sort of intelligence assessment investigative front and then the other is the I guess what I would call the patient care uh front I've about a question uh from the back row here Mr Quinn my name is John quen from the FBI's perspective is the post 11 intelligence organization and system that has been created working effectively or effectively in order to meet the threats that you've identified is is are the things that need to be done to improve that system or can we take comfort in the fact that it's working effectively to do the job it needs to be doing so uh I guess the first thing I would say is one of the most gratifying things I have seen in this job uh in this role uh especially having been in this very world for a long time and then taken a detour into the private sector where the grass was Browner uh and then came back uh um is how far the intelligence Community has come in terms of integration um words I think Escape me a little bit to describe how different it is now I mean one way to put it is I've now been in this job six and a half maybe more than six and a half years I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've had some friction or even or much less Turf battle with any of the other IC agencies last time in the 9/11 era you couldn't have gone a week without that uh we have senior as in everybody in this room will understand the terminology sces level NSA and CIA people uh sitting in my inner circle uh every morning uh I'm talking and engaging with my counterparts constantly oneon-one two on two I mean so the glue the community part of the intelligence Community uh I would just tell you is something that every American should be really booed by in today's world uh and that in turn is not just everybody being good friends and getting along it means the information is Flowing uh and we've moved I would say from an era of maybe uh conflict or or tension and competition into an era of kind of uh grudging deconfliction to an Era of you know full-on cooperation to where we are now which is like integration uh ways where say every day I mean the f bi's 2 with the nsas 2 is making five or six or seven I mean that's to me what the what the American people I think rightly expect and deserve and I think that's what I'm seeing now can it get better it can always get better and a lot of the challenges of Technology are making um are sort of imposing heavier burdens on all of us whether it's the Avalanche of data that has to be uh gotten through whether it's the speed of the threats whether it's AI um whether it's cryptocurrency uh whether it's the challenges of uh warrant proof encryption I mean there's a whole range of technological advances that are putting strain on our ability to uh to do the job but the one really bright spot I would say is that the the Partnerships and the relationships the cohesion that exists in intelligence Community is is just breathtakingly uh positive and something I'm grateful for every day and I think I hope you get a little bit of a flavor of it from my from my answer so we got time for one last question director yes considering I work for Nick de director Scott tuer and we're having struggles with budget constraints Nashville Cleveland andd in terms of footprint have we thought are we supporting you can we work together to support this mission in terms of how the G the 702 will affect the community budget constraints are a huge problem any plans in place considering budget constraints so uh first off you're absolutely right that budget constraints are a real concern um we in fiscal 24 are dealing with a budget uh that amounts to a $500 million cut uh and everywhere I turn somebody's got a great idea and I don't mean that sarcastically of what it is the FBI needs to be doing more of I haven't found anybody with any responsible ideas of what it is the FBI can be doing less of so cuts of that magnitude to our budget uh means cuts to our ability to go after violent crime last year we arrested Ed something like 50 bad guys per day every day all year long so cuts to our violent crime means more bad guys on the street more neighborhoods at risk more Children at Risk I already talked about the the China threat and the scale that that represents China ain't cutting their budget uh so cutting our budget you know in effect is kind of form of unilateral disarmament against the Chinese the Cyber threat we're investigating something like a hundred different ransomware variants each one of them with scores of victims that's just ransomware uh cutting our cyber budget means more ransomware attacks which are now against hospitals schools 911 call centers uh there's a lot of talk about the threats from the border the cartels we've got close to 400 investigations just into cartel leadership cuts to that means a boon to the cartels fentel hardly a week goes by when I'm not coming across some FBI field office that in one seizure is seizing enough fenel to wipe out an entire state cuts there means more fentanyl on the streets more lives put at risk so who does cutting the budget help it helps the violent criminals the child Predators the Chinese government cyber hackers and ransomware actors uh the cartels Etc terrorists um and who does it hurt it hurts our law enforcement Partners state and local law enforcement Partners who depend on us every day in all H host of ways and ultimately it hurts the American people and the neighborhoods that we all sworn to protect so uh that's a problem we're going to mitigate and muddle our way through the impact of those cuts this year but the key is to make sure that Congress doesn't Double Down On It uh going into 25 because then we're really going to have a problem uh and I appreciate um you know your division's role in helping us kind of do the best we can um to find efficiencies and and look for ways to kind of mitigate the impact of the cuts but to make no mistake um it is a form of of setting us back at a time when we need to be launching forward not backwards I think your voice is helpful thank you okay well thank you director uh appreciate you taking the time thank I got a unique souvenir oh great we have a a one of aind standing committee souvenir one of our late members dick fredman was an amateur welder and put together a horseshoe for good luck I guess uh I would say one of a kind but two of your predecessors have these so my pleasure to present that thank you again thank you

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Length: 39min 55sec (2395 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2024