The FBI on Thursday confirmed its networks were targeted by “suspicious” activities, without providing further details.
“The FBI identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks, and we have leveraged all technical capabilities to respond. We have nothing additional to provide,” the bureau said in a statement.
The networks that were targeted in the cyber incident are known as the “digital collection system,” according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
Documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act by the Electronic Frontier Foundation decades ago described the FBI’s “Digital Collection Systems Network” as a suite of software that is used by the bureau to conduct a wide range of surveillance activities, from wiretaps to pen registers, which are surveillance tools that record phone numbers, IP addresses, signaling and other information, in real time.