Some fires burn in the open—others spark in the shadows of cyberspace. As the leader of the DHS Cyber Crime Center for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Mike Prado has raised critical awareness about the ways Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) are weaponizing generative AI to fuel financial fraud, exploit minors and adults through deepfakes, and scale ransomware and cybercrime to unprecedented levels.
Prado isn’t just warning about the fire—he’s forging the tools to fight it. By adapting investigative techniques and deploying advanced capabilities, he ensures HSI stays ahead of criminal innovation, confronting AI-driven threats with the same speed and scale that adversaries are trying to unleash. C3 supports all HSI domestic and international field offices in a broad spectrum of cyber investigations, including online child sexual exploitation and abuse, network intrusion, and illicit activity on the dark web, to include narcotics and weapons trafficking. C3 also oversees HSI’s Computer Forensics program and maintains programmatic oversight and coordination of all cyber training, outreach, and specialized solutions to counter illicit use of technologies.
In a digital world where every spark can become a wildfire of fraud or exploitation, Prado’s leadership has become a beacon—protecting communities, safeguarding trust, and blazing new paths for how law enforcement tackles cybercrime in the age of artificial intelligence.