Aggressively investigating attack on Indian Consulate in San Francisco, says FBI chief

At the NIA headquarters, Wray met NIA Director Dinkar Gupta and other senior officers.

“During the meeting, candid and wide-ranging discussions were held on a host of issues, including activities of terrorist-organised criminal networks, ongoing investigations in the US in the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, investigation of cyber-terror and cyber-crimes of various kinds,” a spokesperson for the NIA said in a statement.

“Wray also informed the NIA that the FBI was aggressively investigating the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco,” the spokesperson said.

During the meeting, the NIA chief highlighted the nexus between terrorist outfits and terrorist elements with members of organised criminal syndicates, which was spreading to the US as well, the statement said.

“Wray said that both the agencies have a lot in common and the similarities are far greater than the differences. On the nexus between terror actors and organised crime syndicates, Wray said that a blending of lines between terrorists and criminals was now visible in cyberspace as well,” the spokesperson said.

“Terror incidents like 9/11 and the Mumbai attacks have changed the way in which nations respond to terror threats, he (Wray) observed, emphasising on the need to take the partnership and cooperation between the FBI and the NIA to the next level to deal with the constantly evolving challenges and threats of terrorism.”

According to the spokesperson, during the meeting, NIA chief Gupta also pointed out that threats in the cyber domain were increasing. “Digital space was also being effectively exploited by terrorists and extremists for propagating radical views and recruitment…NIA was also seeing use of cryptocurrency for terrorist financing. Wray added that increasingly, cybercrimes are being committed to fund terrorism. This evolution of the cyber-threat needs a joint response towards investigation of cyber-threat cases, he stressed,” the spokesperson said.

The difficulties encountered by law enforcement agencies across the world in obtaining data from encryption apps also came up for discussion during the meeting, the spokesperson said. “The two sides noted that with the advent of newer technologies at a fast pace, tracing, tracking and investigating crypto transactions is turning out to be a huge challenge,” the statement said.

“Both the agencies recognised the challenges posed by organised crime networks, terror related crimes, cyber enabled terror attacks, ransomware threats, economic crimes and transnational terror crimes.”

The NIA spokesperson said that Wray also “thanked the NIA for the enduring cooperation between the two agencies, and looked forward to exploration of new opportunities to collaborate further”.

“Gupta also thanked the FBI for being a very significant partner in the training and capacity building of Indian Police officers. Both agencies agreed to explore increasing its future interactions and collaborative initiatives on the training track,” the spokesperson said.

Wray, who arrived in New Delhi Sunday evening, later visited the Delhi Police’s headquarters at Jai Singh Road and met Police Commissioner Arora and other senior officers. The two sides discussed issues related to terrorism, cyber fraud and fake call centres, among others.

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