Elvis Chan - From Making Computer Chips to FBI Supervisory Special Agent!

Elvis Chan is a Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan, who works cybersecurity matters for the FBI San Francisco Division. We discuss how we got into the FBI, Life in the FBI Cybersecurity Division, and how to get involved.

The FBI is always looking for qualified applications for Special Agent and professional staff positions. Please see https://www.fbijobs.gov/ for more details.

Notes:

• There are three main roles in CyberSecurity at the FBI:
  • Special Agent (Gun Carrying Badge)
  • Intelligence Analyst
  • Computer Scientist
  
  
• It may be quiet on the outside, but you can bet the FBI is hard at work on the inside.
• Protection of the recent elections was discussed. The sheer number of people involved in protecting the elections from foreign actors couldn't be enumerated. Both the public sector and private sector are involved.
• In an incident response, there is often coordination with FBI headquarters and sometimes other 3 letter agencies.
• FBI San Francisco was the squad of record for investigating the 2014 Yahoo hack.
• Elvis goes into detail explaining more about Russian Hacking and how the FSB culture works.
• Placement in the FBI is based on a ranking system.

Quotes:

• "There are a LOT of things behind the scenes I can't talk about."
• "If you see in the news that there is a hack, you can be sure that there is at least one, maybe two, maybe several, office mobilized to figure out what the heck happened."
• "On a regular day, I would love to just go through my email and have the scheduled meetings I'm gonna have."
• "Why are the Russians coming after us..."
• "Whatever happens to you... 'The Need of the Bureau'"
• "My current job, despite all the paperwork and meeting I don't want to go to is a 10 out of 10!"
• "People would not believe some of the stuff that we've seen or that we've gone through. They would make the worst movie plot because they would be so unbelievable!"

Links:

• FBI Jobs: https://www.fbijobs.gov
• 2014 Yahoo Hack: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-charges-russian-fsb-officers-and-their-criminal-conspirators-hacking-yahoo-and-millions
• FSB: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Security_Service
• InfraGard: https://www.infragard.org/
• FBI Field Offices: https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices

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