WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump and cabinet officials held a roundtable at the White House on Wednesday to highlight the administration’s progress in combating cybercrime, including preventing $1.6 billion in losses and cracking down on sexual extortion.
During a roundtable in the East Room, Trump and members of his administration updated Americans on their efforts, which included actions Trump took earlier this year.
“Federal law enforcement has been able to warn over 10,000 Americans targeted for victimization, and we prevented $1.6 billion in losses at least this year,” Trump said.
“Federal law enforcement has also frozen nearly $1 billion of cyber currency… tied to foreign scammers, shut down more than 500 fraudulent websites, and coordinated with technology companies to disrupt millions and millions of online accounts used by foreign criminals,” he added.
Trump emphasized that his team is also zeroing in on “sexual extortion rackets,” including through first lady Melania Trump-championed Take It Down Act.
“Our administration is also aggressively confronting the sexual extortion rackets that have wrecked the lives of too many young people, and in some cases even tragically led victims to take their own lives, commit suicide,” he said.
“This has been a top priority for our wonderful first lady, who led a successful bipartisan effort to pass the Take It Down Act—a big deal—and it went almost, I think, unanimously through Congress,” he added.
Trump also highlighted other actions he has taken to combat cybercrime, including signing an executive order in March that directs an inter-agency approach to target “predatory internet schemes and establish a victims restoration program to recover as much money for the victims as possible.”
“In August, I signed a historic national security memorandum unleashing the incredible talent, tools, and resources of our private sector and companies to undertake offensive and defensive actions to stop the hackers… predators, cybercriminals, including industrial scam centers stealing from American families and American businesses,” he added.
Nearly three in four adults in the United States have been subjected to scams on the internet and cyberattacks, according to the president, and Americans reported losing $20 billion last year to such schemes.
“Every American who has an aging parent or a young son or daughter has felt the anxiety of knowing that those you love are using internet service overrun by thieves and pirates, predators and foreign criminals,” he said.
“Under the Trump administration, we have marshaled the full force of the federal government to combat this scourge,” he added.
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