Rich Tehrani

FBI Calls China-Linked Intrusion a Major Cyber Incident

The FBI reportedly classified a China-linked effort to penetrate one of its surveillance systems this week as a “major cyber incident,” meaning it was a significant risk to U.S. national security. The definition of a “major incident” was established by the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA). The 2014 bill was an update to a 2002 law that created universal security standards for federal agencies, including protocols for investigating and documenting suspected cyberattacks. The FBI notified Congress in early March that it was investigating “suspicious activities” on one of its sensitive internal computer networks, upon which the Bureau stored information related to wiretaps and other surveillance programs. The intrusion was first detected on February 17 and, by all accounts, the FBI’s cybersecurity team was able to shut it down fairly quickly. “The affected system is unclassified and contains law enforcement sensitive information, including returns from legal process, such as pen register and trap and trace surveillance returns, and personally identifiable information pertaining to subjects of FBI investigations,” the FBI said. https://t.co/gICnRTsjS6