Unidentified computer hackers associated with the Sinaloa drug cartel were able to garner phone records from the FBI, then used Mexico City surveillance cameras to compromise key informants and witnesses so they could murder them back in 2018, a new report showed.
This information was disclosed to the Justice Department in an Inspector General audit of the FBI’s efforts to “Mitigate the Effects of Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance,” according to Fox News.
The report cited the case against Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who used to lead the cartel, but who was extradited to the United States back in 2017. While federal authorities were working the case, they were alerted to the hiring of a hacker “who offered a menu of services related to exploiting mobile phones and other electronic devices.”
The hacker “had observed people going in and out of the United States Embassy in Mexico City and identified ‘people of interest’ for the cartel, including the FBI Assistant Legal Attache (ALA T), and then was able to use the ALA T’s mobile phone number to obtain calls made and received, as well as geolocation data, associated with the ALAT’s phone,” the audit read.
“According to the FBI, the hacker also used Mexico City’s camera system to follow the ALAT through the city and identify people the ALAT met with,” the report continued. “According to the case agent, the cartel used that information to intimidate and, in some instances, kill potential sources or cooperating witnesses.”
The audit also highlighted how modern technology has “made it easier than ever for less-sophisticated nations and criminal enterprises to identify and exploit vulnerabilities created by” data from everyday items like smartphones and personal computers.
Some within the U.S. intel community, including CIA officials, described the threat as being “existential.”
This should send a message to the U.S. that computers have become the new battlefield. And we are still vulnerable in this area.
Even if the federal government expanded funding and continued using all the technology at its disposal, drug cartels can still gain the upper hand.
Hellbound and Down 