FBI ON THE MONEY

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday told a Senate panel that a request for a $40 million increase in its cybersecurity budget for the upcoming fiscal year would go in part towards combating increasing and damaging ransomware attacks.

“Our budget request, the enhancements we requested, include 155 positions and $40 million for cyber, and a huge part of that will be going very much to the ransomware campaign that we are working on,” Wray testified to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies.

Wray noted that the FBI is currently investigating over 100 types of ransomware variations, each of which he said had “scores and scores of victims,” and that enhancing the FBI’s ability to address ransomware attacks is a top priority.