FBI Data Security Breach in Mexico Led to Murders of Drug Informants
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is being accused of a security breach that allowed a notorious Mexican drug gang to track down and to kill FBI informants.
An auditor’s report released last week says the Sinaloa drug cartel hired a hacker in 2018 who tapped into an FBI official’s phone data as well as surveillance cameras in Mexico City to identify people entering and leaving the U.S. Embassy.
The hacker identified some of them as “people of interest,” including an embassy legal attaché. Many of them were informants who helped police track down the cartel’s drug-making operations and arrest some of its members.
Assassins overseen by Sinaloa founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman are accused of killing some of the persons the hacker identified. Guzman is serving a life sentence in a U.S. federal prison after convictions for drug smuggling, murder, kidnapping and related charges.
The auditor’s report said the security lapses indicate the possibility of a larger problem that should motivate improvements in the way the FBI protects informants and secures its telecommunications.
Disclosures about the Sinaloa drug cartel assassinations were part of a larger Justice Department inspector general’s report about “ubiquitous technical surveillance,” or what the highly-redacted report calls UTS.
It refers to the proliferation of surveillance cameras and the exchanges of data on personal communications, travel and residences.
The inspector general’s audit says the Sinaloa hacker obtained the phone number of an FBI assistant legal attaché. The hacker was not named in the report.
It says the hacker used the phone number “to obtain calls made and received, as well as geolocation data.” It also says the hacker “used Mexico City’s camera system to follow the (FBI official) through the city and identify people the (official) met with.”
Afterward, “the cartel used that information to intimidate and, in some instances, kill potential sources or cooperating witnesses,” the report says.
The outlook for more dangerous breaches of personal data is disturbing without security improvements, the inspector general reported.
“Advances in data mining and analysis, facial recognition, and computer network exploitation have made it easier than ever for nation state adversaries, terrorist organizations and criminal networks to identify FBI personnel and operations,” the audit said.
The risks increasingly extend to “less-sophisticated nations and criminal enterprises,” the report says.
The inspector general commended the FBI for its effort to stop data breaches but added that its effort reveals shortcomings that could be exploited by criminals. The report recommended several changes to the security plan, including more training for FBI agents.
It said that “after reviewing an initial outline for the plan, we are concerned that the final version may not be sufficient to ensure that responsibilities are clearly assigned to officials who have the authority to execute the strategy and ensure that the FBI has clear and unambiguous UTS-related policies throughout the enterprise.”
The inspector general agreed the FBI developed effective training modules on stopping data breaches but they are not always delivered to employees “who would benefit from them, suggesting this important training is still not reaching the personnel who need it most.”
The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the world’s largest transnational drug syndicates. It is designated by the U.S. government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
It is known for torturing and murdering its adversaries while maintaining its cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine smuggling operations through bribes and threats. Guzman is blamed by the Mexican and U.S. governments for more than 34,000 violent deaths, most often in conflicts with rival gangs or Mexican police.
El Chapo Guzman’s 2017 extradition to the United States had minimal effect on reducing the influence of the Sinaloa Cartel in transnational crime, according to the FBI. Instead, leadership of the organization was turned over to his sons, who are sometimes called the “Chapitos.”
The Justice Department has so far declined to comment on the inspector general’s report.
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