Mexican Sinaloa Cartel Hacks FBI Phone, Enables Informant Killings

A Justice Department report revealed that the Sinaloa drug cartel hired a hacker to surveil the FBI's assistant legal attache in Mexico City, using compromised phone and surveillance camera data to monitor calls, geolocations, and movements. This breach allowed the cartel to identify, intimidate, and in some cases kill FBI informants and cooperating witnesses linked to the investigation of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. The hacker exploited vulnerabilities in FBI cybersecurity and leveraged advanced data mining, facial recognition, and network exploitation tools, effectively turning the FBI's own surveillance methods against it. The incident highlights an "existential" threat posed by commercial surveillance technologies that are increasingly accessible to criminal enterprises and adversaries. The FBI and partner agencies like the CIA have been urged to conduct enterprise-wide threat evaluations to address these vulnerabilities. The ongoing violence between cartels in Mexico and the sophisticated cyber capabilities of criminal organizations emphasize the critical national security risks involved.