FBI sees steep rise in state-sponsored cyber theft

Risk USA: Impact of US sanctions driving theft “to fund coffers”, says special agent

US Department of Justice

Photo: Bjoertvedt/Wikimedia Commons

The impact of economic sanctions on rogue countries is helping to drive a dramatic rise in their sponsorship of sophisticated cyber attacks, with the goal of stealing funds to replenish national coffers, according to a senior agent in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s cyber security division.

Banks also say they fear that a rise in the severity of hacks resulting in successful thefts of north of $100 million per attack is also driving nation states to dramatically increase their