FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress about the escalating digital threats facing the United States, emphasizing the need for increased funding to counter cyber threats from nation-states, foreign intelligence services, and cybercriminals. Wray highlighted the challenges posed by rapidly evolving technologies that are exploited by threat actors to infiltrate U.S. networks and attack critical infrastructure. He noted the sophistication of international cybercrime groups and hostile nation-states, which continue to advance their hacking techniques, posing significant challenges to cybersecurity efforts.
Throughout 2023, the FBI took over 1,000 actions against cyber adversaries, including convictions, arrests, dismantlements of hacking groups, and disruptions of major cyber campaigns. Wray stressed the importance of collaboration with U.S. cyber authorities and the private sector to enhance information sharing and threat intelligence. He warned that the U.S. is falling behind its adversaries in cyber capabilities, particularly as governments in Beijing and Moscow invest heavily in their digital and counterintelligence divisions.
Wray underscored the need for increased resources to counter the growing cyber threat, especially from the People’s Republic of China, which he described as having a larger hacking program than every other major nation combined. The FBI’s fiscal year 2025 budget request includes funding to enhance cyber response capabilities and combat threats associated with potentially hostile intelligence services and foreign government actors. Wray reiterated the FBI’s commitment to investigating and holding accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace, emphasizing the seriousness with which the agency takes all potential threats to public and private sector systems.
