The FBI on Thursday confirmed its networks were targeted by "suspicious" activities, without immediately 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 Thursday.
According to a disclosure to Congress reviewed Friday by CBS News, the bureau detected the cyber incident on its surveillance system on Feb. 17 after it noticed "abnormal log information."
The notice to Congress did not specify who may have targeted the FBI's system, known as the "Digital Collection System," but it used sophisticated methods.
"These techniques include leveraging a commercial Internet Service Provider vendor's infrastructure to exploit FBI network security controls," Congress was informed in the notice.
CBS News could not ascertain additional details, including who was behind it or whether any information was compromised.
The system that was impacted contains unclassified and law enforcement sensitive information, such as pen registers — which are surveillance tools that record phone numbers, IP addresses, signaling and other information, in real time — and trap and trace surveillance returns, as well as personally identifiable information related to subjects of FBI criminal probes.
Remediation efforts remain ongoing, and the scope and impact of the incident have yet to be determined.
In 2024, state-sponsored hackers from China known as "Salt Typhoon" launched cyber assaults against commercial telecommunications companies.
The group hit numerous major U.S. companies, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies, and that they also breached systems used by U.S. intelligence to conduct wiretaps, CBS News previously reported.
That same group was also responsible for trying to tap into phones or networks used by then-former President Donald Trump, Sen. JD Vance and members of former Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, CBS reported at the time.
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