The FBI wants to make the private industry in New Mexico aware of increased malicious cyber intrusions and encourage companies of all sizes to establish proactive relationships with them as soon as possible.
Executives and cyber agents from the Albuquerque FBI Division are involved in media appearances, a social media campaign, and presentations to local industry groups.
“The most important action a company can take in preparing for a cyber security incident is to develop a relationship with their local FBI field office before it happens,” Special Agent in Charge Raul Bujanda said. “We can provide intelligence on trends as well as advice to help you avoid computer compromises in the first place. And you will have a dedicated FBI contact you can call 24/7 to quickly report an incident and get us working to help you.”
According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, there were 19 ransomware incidents reported in New Mexico in 2021, up from 10 the year before.
However, it’s likely the number of actual incidents were much higher.
Nationally, between 2019 and 2021, the number of ransomware complaints reported to IC3 increased by 82%.
The FBI recommends that all companies, regardless of size, take these preventive measures during this heightened threat environment:
- If possible, identify your company’s most sensitive information and encrypt it.
- Ensure your organization has an incident response plan that includes the FBI. Your organization should exercise your incident response plan on a routine basis.
- Ensure you have offline backups of critical data.
- If your computers are compromised, contact the FBI immediately.
WHAT TO DO AFTER A CYBER INVASION
- Contact the FBI as soon as you learn of a cyber intrusion. During a crisis, they will work shoulder-to-shoulder with your incident response team in your U.S. office while also working with foreign partners.
By working with the FBI, you are working to help prevent the actor from victimizing others and potentially from re-victimizing you.
The FBI shares information with the private sector through one-on-one outreach, cyber threat bulletins, and through our many partnerships, including the Fortune-1000 companies who belong to the Domestic Security Alliance Council and the U.S. critical infrastructure professionals in their national InfraGard program.
For more information, please visit: https://www.dsac.gov/.
InfraGard is a partnership between the FBI and members of the private sector to protect U.S. Critical Infrastructure. Through seamless collaboration, InfraGard connects owners and operators within critical infrastructure to the FBI to provide education, information sharing, networking, and workshops on emerging technologies and threats.
InfraGard’s membership includes business executives, entrepreneurs, lawyers, security personnel, military, and government officials, IT professionals, academia, and state and local law enforcement—all dedicated to contributing industry-specific insight and advancing national security.
To learn more about joining InfraGard, please visit www.infragard.org.
FBI alerts and advisories are provided directly through the InfraGard platform.
IC3 also provides Industry Alerts at https://www.ic3.gov/Home/IndustryAlerts.
CONTACTING THE FBI
Contact the FBI Albuquerque Field Office at (505) 889-1300.
You can report internet crimes at www.ic3.gov and other suspicious criminal activity at tips.fbi.gov.
Staff Reports
