The FBI Has Lost Track Of Its Hacking Tools

Uploaded on 2025-04-23 in NEWS-Cybersecurity News, GOVERNMENT-Law Enforcement, FREE TO VIEW

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has disclosed that it can’t find records related to its purchase of a series of hacking tools. This is a highly embarrassing admission, since the FBI has been spending heavily to acquire effective hacking tools and is despite these purchases being included in a public US government procurement database.

The news highlights the secrecy the FBI maintains around its use of hacking tools, with very little information available about what the tools are, or what they are used for. Indeed, the original purchase records, running to several hundred thousand of dollars, have since been removed from the Internet.

The FBI has previously used classified technology in criminal investigations, pushed back against demands to provide details of hacking operations to defendants and purchased technology from surveillance vendors. This included an FOI request for records related to the FBI’s purchase of multiple hacking tools costing around $250,000 from a child-protection charity, which was originally listed on a publicly accessible database.

Several recent operations undertaken by the FBI have demonstrated the agency’s increasingly powerful cyber capabilities, however, if the FBI has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on hacking technology, it might reasonably be expected to have kept records about that purchase, even if details are not made public.

Image: Ideogram

You Might Also Read:

Phishing Scheme That Generated $11M Taken Down:

If you like this website and use the comprehensive 6,500-plus service supplier Directory, you can get unrestricted access, including the exclusive in-depth Directors Report series, by signing up for a Premium Subscription.