The FBI lately expend hundreds of chiliad of dollars buying powerful hack tools but now the federal agency take that it ca n’t find the documentation associated with those procurements .
There is n’t a whole lot of selective information available about what the tools are or what they do . Vicepreviously reportedthat the bureau ’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit ( CEOU ) buy them for $ 250,000 from an anti - child predator non - profit . They are distinguish as one of the agency ’s web of investigative technique ( NITs ) , and are say to have the ability to provide “ the straight internet address ” of web users who may be using anonymizing engineering .
404 Mediawrites thatafter it filed a Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) request about the tools , the bureau sent back a undefined note claiming that additional information about the purchases was “ missing . ” The FBI ’s note read :
© Flickr / Gage Skidmore / Creative Commons
“ Potentially antiphonal records were identified during the hunting … However , we were advised that they were not in their expect location . An extra hunt for the drop records also met with unsuccessful result . Since we were unable to review the records , we were unable to ascertain if they were responsive to your request . ”
Could it be that the records are “ not in their expected localisation ” because someone move them to another location ? Gizmodo reached out to the Justice Department for more information .
While its cyber abilities receive notably less attention than those of other intelligence agency ( like , say , the NSA ) , the FBI has a fairly advanced hacking arsenal , the likes of which is n’t without controversy . In 2022,the New York Times reportedthat the FBI had sought to procure a tool that could hack “ any phone in the U.S. ” The tool was trade by the NSO Group , the ill-famed Israeli spyware vender , whose products have been trammel in hack scandals all over the world . In 2023 , the New York Times report that a Union agencyhad disobeyedthe Biden administration , which had come out a rule that blockade federal agencies from doing deals with NSO . The FBI was asked to enquire which agency had disobeyed the White House and ultimately foundthat the representation itselfhad buy the tool .
Several recent operations helm by the FBI have present the means ’s progressively powerful cyber capability . In January , itclosed a backdoorto thousands of U.S. computers infect with Chinese malware by take over the hack ’ mastery - and - control server . In 2023 , the FBI also used one of its nit to somehowunmask a Tor userwho was part of an anti - terrorism fount . That same year , the bureauhacked and infiltrateda ransomware gang known as “ Hive , ” which permit it to ultimately disrupt the felonious surgical operation . In cosmopolitan , the bureau knows what it ’s doing when it comes to cyber , even if it does keep a low-spirited profile .
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