U.S. Senator Ron Wyden is asking the Government Accountability Office to investigate how federal law enforcement agencies use hacking tools and spyware against Americans, citing limited public information about how often the technologies are deployed and what safeguards govern their use. The requested review covers the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Secret Service, and Homeland Security Investigations.
Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, made the request alongside Representative Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas, in a letter sent Friday to Acting Comptroller General Orice W. Brown. Their official announcement asks the GAO to publish an unclassified report covering the agencies’ practices and potential reforms.
Lawmakers Want More Details on Misuse and Oversight
The lawmakers said federal agencies have used spyware and other hacking tools for more than 25 years, but do not publish annual reports comparable with those available for some other surveillance methods. They want the GAO to examine documented cases in which employees may have used these capabilities for unauthorized or personal purposes.
The review would also assess the technical controls, auditing systems, and internal oversight used to detect and prevent misuse. Wyden and Casar said hacking tools can provide access to information including webcams, location data, files, and encrypted communications.
They also asked the GAO to examine how agencies acquire, store, and secure hacking tools and whether software vulnerabilities used by the government are submitted to the federal process for deciding whether technology companies should be notified so they can patch them.
Request Also Covers Warrants and Cybersecurity Risks
The lawmakers want the GAO to examine what federal agencies tell judges when seeking authorization to deploy hacking tools. That includes whether agencies adequately disclose the possibility that an operation could affect devices or people who are not the intended targets.
Wyden cited the case of former L3Harris executive Peter Williams as an example of the risks surrounding highly capable hacking technology. Williams stole advanced hacking tools and sold them to a Russian broker, after which related capabilities were reportedly used by Russian intelligence against Ukraine and by Chinese cybercriminals targeting cryptocurrency owners.
Federal use of hacking tools dates back decades. One early documented case came in 1999, when the FBI installed software that recorded keystrokes on the computer of Philadelphia mobster Nicodemo S. Scarfo to obtain a password for an encrypted file.
Wyden and Casar asked the GAO to produce recommendations for possible legislative and executive changes alongside its findings. The lawmakers said the review should determine whether current controls are sufficient to prevent abuse, protect the tools from theft, and give courts enough information to evaluate hacking operations.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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