FBI investigates breach of surveillance and wiretap systems

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed on Thursday that it’s investigating a breach that affected systems used to manage surveillance and wiretap warrants.

While the federal law enforcement agency declined to share more details regarding the incident’s scope and overall impact, it said that the incident has already been addressed.

“The FBI identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks, and we have leveraged all technical capabilities to respond,” the law enforcement agency told CNN, which first reported the incident.

On Thursday, CNN also cited an anonymous source saying the breach affected FBI systems used to manage wiretapping and foreign intelligence surveillance warrants.

BleepingComputer reached out to an FBI spokesperson for more details, but a response was not immediately available.

While it’s unclear at the moment whether this incident is also connected, Chinese hackers part of a state-backed threat group tracked as Salt Typhoon have also compromised U.S. federal government systems used for court-authorized network wiretapping requests in 2024.

The incident came to light after Salt Typhoon breached the networks of telecommunications providers in the U.S. (AT&T, Verizon, Lumen, Charter Communications, Consolidated Communications, Comcast, Digital Realty, and Windstream), as well as dozens of other countries.

While inside the U.S. telecom firms’ networks, the hackers also gained access to the “private communications” of some U.S. government officials.

In November 2021, the FBI’s email servers were also hacked to distribute spam emails impersonating the bureau that warned recipients about fake cyberattacks.

The FBI also revealed in February 2023 that it was investigating malicious cyber activity involving an FBI New York Field Office computer system that was used to investigate child sexual exploitation.