A familiar face is being promoted from within to lead the FBI’s Cyber division.
In a LinkedIn post Sunday, Leatherman said that FBI Director Kash Patel had selected him as assistant director and lead official for the FBI’s primary division for investigating cybercrimes. e The role is prominent in national security, espionage and counterintelligence investigations.
The division “sits at the intersection of law enforcement, intelligence, and national defense — uniquely positioned to impose cost on our cyber adversaries while supporting victims of cybercrime,” Leatherman wrote in his announcement.
“Our charge is simple but not easy: make malicious cyber activity unsustainable. That means disrupting criminal and nation-state actors, sharing intelligence that helps victims defend and recover, and shaping the broader operating environment through persistent engagement,” he continued.
Leatherman, a 22-year FBI veteran, has been heavily involved in cyber investigations as section chief and deputy assistant director over the past three years, often personally briefing the public and news media on high-profile cases.
He was among the leaders of law enforcement efforts to unmask LockBitSupp, the wealthy primary administrator of the LockBit ransomware, to respond to the 2021 ransomware attacks on Colonial Pipeline, and oversaw major cybercrime investigations, such as the recent infection of millions of devices with LummaC2 malware.
He was also part of the bureau’s efforts over the past year to investigate and unwind a pair of massive Chinese state-sponsored hacking operations — Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon — that are targeting the U.S. telecommunications and other critical infrastructure sectors.
Leatherman takes over the reins from Bryan Vorndran, who led the bureau’s Cyber Division from 2021 until this past spring when he left the federal government to take a job as Microsoft’s deputy chief information security officer.
His elevation provides a measure of stability at the bureau’s Cyber Division as the FBI and federal government more broadly has dealt with widespread firings, personnel shakeups and departures from key staff under the Trump administration.
In addition to Vorndran, Cynthia Kaiser, the bureau’s longtime policy, intelligence and engagement lead at FBI Cyber, left this month to take a position at cybersecurity firm Halcyon.
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