Douglas S. DePodesta, special agent in charge of the Chicago Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced the results of the FBI’s national initiative, Operation Winter SHIELD. Over the past two months, the FBI has been encouraging the public to take 10 concrete cybersecurity steps in order to protect critical systems, sensitive data, and national infrastructure from cyber attacks.
Since the launch of Operation Winter SHIELD, FBI Chicago has engaged with local private sector and community partners on lessons learned from FBI cyber investigations. These engagements highlighted how hostile nation-states have leveraged technology to steal sensitive information, conduct cyber espionage, and hold data for ransom. Nationwide, Operation Winter SHIELD identified these practical steps organizations can take to strengthen cybersecurity and improve resilience against cyberattacks:
- Implement a risk-based vulnerability management program.
- Exercise your incident response plan with all stakeholders.
- Reduce administrator privileges.
- Identify inventory and protect internet-facing systems and services.
- Strengthen email authentication and malicious content protections.
- Maintain offline immutable backups and test restoration.
- Track and retire end-of-life tech on a defined schedule.
- Manage third-party risk.
- Adopt phish-resistant authentication.
- Protect security logs and preserve for an appropriate period.
The FBI encourages industry leaders and workers to view themselves as critical allies working to defeat cyber criminals and keep our nation safe. To request information that could help your small business, corporation, or employees defend against cyber intrusions, submit a Presenter Request Form on FBI Chicago’s Outreach page: forms.fbi.gov/speaker-request-forms/chicago-fbi-speaker-presenter-request-form/view.
For more information about Operation Winter SHIELD, visit www.fbi.gov/wintershield.