Overview

• A June 2025 Justice Department Inspector General audit disclosed that in 2018 a cartel-hired hacker compromised an FBI assistant legal attaché’s phone records and Mexico City’s CCTV system.
• The report coins the term “ubiquitous technical surveillance” to describe the widespread collection and storage of communications, location data and camera footage.
• The hacker used the attaché’s phone number to obtain call logs and geolocation data and then leveraged Mexico City’s CCTV network to tail the official and identify their meetings.
• According to the audit, the cartel leveraged the stolen intelligence to intimidate and in some cases kill potential sources and cooperating witnesses.
• In response to the findings the FBI is developing a strategic mitigation plan and rolling out new training programs to fortify operational security against similar exploits.