The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday a new unit within its National Security Division focused on pursuing cyber threats from nation-state and state-backed hackers, formalizing an increasingly significant part of the national security apparatus into the Justice Department's hierarchy.
In a statement, Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen said the new unit would allow the DOJ's national security team "to increase the scale and speed of disruption campaigns and prosecutions of nation-state threat actors, state-sponsored cybercriminals, associated money launderers, and other cyber-enabled threats to national security."
National security officials outside the DOJ have also emphasized China as a top cybersecurity concern, including the U.S.' top cybersecurity official.
The announcement made no mention of Chinese cyber efforts, which CISA Director Jen Easterly described last week as an "epoch-defining threat."
Building cases against those groups can take years, and don't always result in an arrest, given the far-flung nature of the hacking groups.
Persons:
Sue Gordon, Matt Olsen, Jen, Olsen
Organizations:
National Intelligence, National Counterterrorism Center, CNBC, U.S . Department of Justice, National Security Division, Justice, DOJ, U.S, Navy
Locations:
San Francisco, China, North Korea