U.S. Government Reviews Hacking Tools and Chinese Lidar Security

Wyden, a Democrat, sent a letter to the GAO requesting a comprehensive inquiry into how the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, and the Secret Service use such tools. He said there is little public information about their scope, frequency, or operational safeguards. Unlike wiretaps and pen registers, which provide some transparency, the government does not publish annual reports on hacking operations. Wyden noted that the Department of Justice and the FBI have repeatedly ignored congressional requests for greater transparency across multiple administrations.

The senator asked the GAO to investigate whether agents have abused the tools for unauthorized purposes, how agencies acquire, store, and secure them, and whether courts are fully informed of risks to innocent targets when warrants are requested. To illustrate the dangers, he cited Peter Williams, a former L3Harris executive who stole and sold advanced hacking tools to a Russian broker; those tools were later used by Russian spies against Ukraine and by Chinese cybercriminals against cryptocurrency owners.

The earliest documented FBI use of spyware occurred in 1999, when agents installed keystroke-recording malware to decrypt a file belonging to Philadelphia mobster Nicodemo S. Scarfo.

TechCrunch also learned that the Idaho National Laboratory, a Department of Energy lab, is reviewing whether Chinese lidar sensors might pose security risks if widely used on American roads. The research is funded by a company or group of companies in the electric and autonomous vehicle industries, according to two people familiar with the effort. The lab declined to comment, saying it was not at liberty to discuss the project. China’s leading lidar suppliers, Hesai and RoboSense, did not respond to requests for comment.

Lawmakers are already pushing for restrictions. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said Chinese lidar could be used for military or industrial espionage and that taxpayer dollars should not fund such technology. Rep. John Moolenaar told CNBC he is concerned about backdoors transmitting data to Chinese interests.

Chinese lidar companies have rapidly lowered prices, taking a product that cost around $75,000 a decade ago down to a few hundred dollars in some cases. U.S. lidar makers have struggled to compete, leading to consolidation and bankruptcies. Omer Keilaf, CEO of Israeli lidar firm Innoviz, said Chinese lidar presents supply-chain risks and cybersecurity risks, including potential mass disabling of sensors and compressed transmission of detailed data, though he said it is not very difficult to extract such information.