The FBI Anchorage Field Office has launched a cybersecurity awareness campaign to educate the state’s private sector about the growing threat of cyberattacks. It includes media engagements, social media posts, and presentations to local businesses and organizations. The FBI special agents also will be educating about cyber threats, which include critical infrastructure attacks, ransomware, and supply chain attacks.
Elliott Peterson, FBI Anchorage Special Agent assigned to the Cyber Investigation Squad tells KSRM:
“We really had two primary goals in launching this campaign. The first was that we really wanted more opportunities to educate private sector businesses and organizations, including those in the Kenai/Soldotna area on how these risks are growing. That was our first goal. our second goal was to try to continue to create proactive relationships and partnerships with the FBI, which is sort of a concept that, I think sometimes, people aren’t that familiar with, and cybersecurity can be really important to have abilities to keep on top of the newest threats or understand maybe what’s happening to different companies or businesses in your own region.”
The FBI recommends engaging with the local field office in Anchorage to strengthen your cybersecurity as it helps companies understand potential threats. They also help better understand protecting the confidentiality of victims to determine the severity of a compromise, provide information to help prevent re-infection, and help identify those committing cyber activities.
Peterson adds:
“We prefer that the first time you talk with us is maybe not when an incident is happening, right? We’re really trying to have conversations with businesses and organizations maybe before they have a cybersecurity incident or problem so that they’re aware of maybe what some of the best practices and resources are. The second piece is really just to have a better conduit to push out information.”
He said that the Cyber Investigation Squad is focusing on trying to get information out to the general public:
“Generally speaking, if you are doing some of the more proactive things, if you’ve updated your security measures to account for a lot of the vulnerabilities or maybe a lot of ways that companies are often initially targeted, then maybe it’s less likely that it happens to you, but I think the unfortunate reality is that this stuff’s happening all the time all over the United States.”
In addition to partnering with your local FBI office, companies should also take the following preventive steps:
- Update and patch operating systems and software.
- Implement robust access controls, especially for privileged users.
- Monitor security logs.
- Audit trusted third parties or others with access to systems and sensitive data.
- Require personnel to choose a strong, unique password for each account and use multifactor authentication for as many services as possible. Passwords should be changed regularly.
- Educate personnel about phishing schemes to highlight the risks of clicking on suspicious links, opening suspicious attachments, and visiting suspicious websites.
- Keep backups of data offline, and regularly test backup and restoration capabilities. Ensure all backup data is encrypted and immutable.
- Develop a cybersecurity incident response plan that includes the FBI. If compromised, contact the FBI immediately.
- Be aware of signs of compromises such as broken passwords, unexpected pop-ups, slow-running devices, altered system settings, or unexplained online activity.
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NOTE: Businesses and organizations can contact the FBI Anchorage Field Office at (907) 276-4441.