U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Feb. 20 that he is establishing a Cyber-Digital Task Force to focus on cyber threats. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein will appoint a senior Justice Department (DOJ) official to chair the task force, which will include representatives from: the DOJ Criminal and National Security Divisions; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the U.S. Attorney’s Office community; the Office of Legal Policy; the Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties; the Office of the Chief Information Officer; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; and the U.S. Marshals Service. “The Internet has given us amazing new tools that help us work, communicate and participate in our economy, but these tools can also be exploited by criminals, terrorists, and enemy governments,” Sessions said in a statement. The attorney general asked the task force to prioritize its study on: efforts to interfere with U.S. elections; efforts to interfere with critical infrastructure; the use of the Internet to spread violent ideologies and to recruit followers; the mass theft of corporate, governmental, and private information; the use of technology to avoid or frustrate law enforcement; and the mass exploitation of computers and other digital devices to attack American citizens and businesses. The task force will be responsible for issuing a report to the attorney general by the end of June.
Back to the February 2018 Washington Letter