Lawfare Archive: How the FBI is Combating Cyberattacks, with Brett Leatherman

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

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4.7 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From March 28, 2024: One of the gravest threats to U.S. national security today—and also one of the newest—is the risk of cyberattacks. They come in many forms, and they can incapacitate companies, institutions, and even the government.

To better understand these threats—and how the government is responding to them—Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett and Lawfare Contributing Editor Brandon Van Grack sat down with Brett Leatherman, Deputy Assistant Director for Cyber Operations at the FBI. They discussed the FBI's recent operations, threats from both state actors and criminal gangs, and the role of the private sector in U.S. cybersecurity.

This is the latest episode in our special series, “The Regulators,” co-sponsored with Morrison Foerster, in which we talk with senior government officials working at the front lines of U.S. national security policy.

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