COVID-19 Exploited by Malicious Cyber Actors (Federal Bureau of Investigation)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to CISA Alert AA20-099A, FBI/IC3 Alert I-032020-PSA, or the CDC alert titled "COVID-19-Related Phone Scams and Phishing Attacks"
* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to COVID-19 related phishing attempts, such as those described in the CDC alert, FBI/IC3 Alert I-032020-PSA and CISA Alert AA20-099A
* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to fake CDC emails, such as those described in FBI/IC3 Alert I-032020-PSA
* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to APT groups using the COVID-19 pandemic as part of their cyber operations, such as those described in CISA Alert AA20-099A
* Records mentioning, describing, or generated as part of or in response to the assessment that the above activities' "goals and targets are consistent with long-standing priorities such as espionage and “hack-and-leak” operations", as described in CISA Alert AA20-099A

I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written about the government and its activities, with some reaching over 100,000 readers in outlets such as Gizmodo, MuckRock, Motherboard, Property of the People, Unicorn Riot, and The Outline, among others. As such, as I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established. In addition, I discuss and comment on the files online and make them available through non-profits such as the library Internet Archive and the journalist non-profit MuckRock, disseminating them to a large audience. While my research is not limited to this, a great deal of it, including this, focuses on the activities and attitudes of the government itself. As such, it is not necessary for me to demonstrate the relevance of this particular subject in advance.

As my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by reporting on it and making the raw data available, I request that fees be waived.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Emma Best

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to CISA Alert AA20-099A, FBI/IC3 Alert I-032020-PSA, or the CDC alert titled "COVID-19-Related Phone Scams and Phishing Attacks"
* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to COVID-19 related phishing attempts, such as those described in the CDC alert, FBI/IC3 Alert I-032020-PSA and CISA Alert AA20-099A
* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to fake CDC emails, such as those described in FBI/IC3 Alert I-032020-PSA
* Records mentioning, describing or generated in response to APT groups using the COVID-19 pandemic as part of their cyber operations, such as those described in CISA Alert AA20-099A
* Records mentioning, describing, or generated as part of or in response to the assessment that the above activities' "goals and targets are consistent with long-standing priorities such as espionage and “hack-and-leak” operations", as described in CISA Alert AA20-099A

I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written about the government and its activities, with some reaching over 100,000 readers in outlets such as Gizmodo, MuckRock, Motherboard, Property of the People, Unicorn Riot, and The Outline, among others. As such, as I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established. In addition, I discuss and comment on the files online and make them available through non-profits such as the library Internet Archive and the journalist non-profit MuckRock, disseminating them to a large audience. While my research is not limited to this, a great deal of it, including this, focuses on the activities and attitudes of the government itself. As such, it is not necessary for me to demonstrate the relevance of this particular subject in advance.

As my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by reporting on it and making the raw data available, I request that fees be waived.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Emma Best

I would love to check the status! But you never gave me a tracking number.

You do this a lot, you know. You fail to properly acknowledge requests and provide tracking numbers and then insist I provide you with the tracking numbers you failed to provide me. As far as patterns and practices go, it's cleverly (and one might even think) deliberately incompetent and obstructive.

Oh my goodness a tracking number! Thank you! Only four months after I submitted the request! I mean the response was due months ago, but you're trying! Any day now, one of you is actually gonna do the search, and your mom will be so proud of you!