The FBI has notified Congress that a China-linked cyber intrusion into a sensitive agency surveillance system has been designated a “major incident” — a classification that signals significant risk to U.S. national security.
According to Politico, the bureau first alerted Congress on Tuesday (March 4) that it had detected suspicious activity on an internal system storing “law enforcement sensitive information.” The FBI did not name a suspect at the time. The bureau later concluded that China was behind the breach and formally classified the intrusion as a major incident under the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) — a 2014 law that requires federal agencies to notify Congress within seven days of determining that a breach is “likely to result in demonstrable harm” to national security.
Congress was informed of the major incident designation last week, according to a congressional aide who spoke to Politico.
The hack involved FBI systems in the Virgin Islands, not FBI headquarters. The full scope of what was compromised has not been made public.
According to the March notice to Congress reviewed by Politico, the hackers broke into the FBI system by “leveraging a commercial Internet Service Provider’s vendor infrastructure” — a method the bureau described as reflecting the group’s “sophisticated tactics.” The compromised system held data from pen register and trap and trace surveillance tools, which track phone calls made to or from a specific number and websites visited by internet-connected devices. While those tools don’t capture the content of communications, the data they collect can reveal who the FBI is watching — making it highly valuable to foreign intelligence services.
The system also contained personally identifiable information tied to subjects of FBI investigations.
It remains unclear whether the interagency cyber response mechanism triggered by a FISMA major incident declaration has been activated, or whether the hack has been fully contained. President Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing next month.
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