cybersecurity Democracy and Cybersecurity EPIC v. FBI

Report: FBI Victim Notification Procedures ‘Unreliable’ and ‘Incomplete’

The FBI’s system for notifying victims of cyberattacks is “unreliable” and “incomplete,” according to a report by the Inspector General for the Department of Justice. The IG report found that “not all victims were informed of their rights as required by” DOJ guidelines, which are “outdated since they do not consider the needs of victims of cybercrime.” In 2017, EPIC obtained through EPIC v. FBI, a FOIA lawsuit, the FBI Victim Notification Procedures that should have applied to Russian cyberattacks during the 2016 Presidential election. The FBI Notification Procedures made clear that notification should occur “even when it may interfere with another investigation or (intelligence) operation.” The records obtained by EPIC led to Associated Press investigation ("FBI gave heads-up to fraction of Russian hackers’ US targets”), which found that the FBI did not follow the Procedures and failed to notify U.S. officials that their email accounts were compromised. The EPIC Democracy and Cybersecurity Project has pursued multiple FOIA cases concerning Russian interference with the 2016 election, including EPIC v. DOJ (the Mueller Report), EPIC v. ODNI (Russian hacking), EPIC v. IRS I release of Trump's tax returns), EPIC v. IRS II (release of Trump business tax records), and EPIC v. DHS (election cybersecurity).

April 1, 2019| Share: