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Audit finds notable security gaps in FBI's storage media management

Bill toulas.

• August 25, 2024

An audit from the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) identified "significant weaknesses" in FBI's inventory management and disposal of electronic storage media containing sensitive and classified information.

The report highlights multiple issues with policies and procedures or controls for tracking storage media extracted from devices, and significant physical security gaps in the media destruction process.

The FBI has acknowledged these issues and is in the process of implementing corrective actions based on the recommendations from OIG.

OIG's findings

OIG's audit highlights several weaknesses in FBI's inventory management and disposal procedures for electronic storage media containing sensitive but unclassified (SBU) as well as classified national security information (NSI).

The three key findings are summarized as follows:

• The FBI does not adequately track or account for electronic storage media, such as internal hard drives and thumb drives, once they are extracted from larger devices, which increases the risk of these media being lost or stolen.
• The FBI fails to consistently label electronic storage media with the appropriate classification levels (e.g., Secret, Top Secret), which could lead to mishandling or unauthorized access to sensitive information.
• The OIG also observed insufficient physical security at the FBI facility where media destruction occurs. This includes inadequate internal access controls, unsecured storage of media awaiting destruction, and non-functioning surveillance cameras, all of which heighten the risk of classified information being compromised.

Recommendations and FBI's response

The OIG has made three specific recommendations to the FBI to address the identified problems.

• Revise procedures to ensure all electronic storage media containing sensitive or classified information, including hard drives that are extracted from computers slated for destruction, are appropriately accounted for, tracked, timely sanitized, and destroyed.
• Implement controls to ensure its electronic storage media are marked with the appropriate NSI classification level markings, in accordance with applicable policies and guidelines.
• Strengthen the control and practices for the physical security of its electronic storage media at the facility to prevent loss or theft.

FBI acknowledged the audit's findings and stated it is in the process of developing a new directive titled "Physical Control and Destruction of Classified and Sensitive Electronic Devices and Material Policy Directive."

This new policy is expected to address the problems identified in the storage media tracking and classification markings.

Additionally, the FBI said it is in the process of  installing protective "cages" to use as storage points for the media, which will be covered by video surveillance.

OIG expects the FBI to update it on the status of implementing the corrective actions within 90 days.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The gunman in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump searched online for events of both Trump and President Joe Biden and saw the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a “target of opportunity,” a senior FBI official said Wednesday.

Gunman in Trump assassination attempt saw rally as ’target of opportunity,’ FBI official says Back to video

Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot at Trump before being killed by the Secret Service, did extensive research for an attack before the shooting and had looked at any number of events or targets, said Kevin Rojek, the FBI’s top agent in Pittsburgh.

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Research/Study Research/Study

Fox News is pushing data from a former Trump official to incorrectly suggest violent crime is rising during the Biden administration

Written by Gideon Taaffe

Published 08/23/24 12:28 PM EDT

As the Democratic National Convention continued in the background this week, Fox News personalities attempted to cast over the convention a shadow of supposedly rising crime. The network repeatedly sought to dispel FBI data showing a decrease in violent crime by instead using statistics from a Heritage Foundation fellow and former Trump administration official. By comparing current crime rates to 2019, rather than 2021 when Biden and Harris entered office, Fox News is skewing the narrative to deny that crime rates have decreased during the Biden administration. 

Violent crime is trending down under the Biden-Harris administration, despite right-wing media attempts to suggest otherwise

• Preliminary FBI crime statistics for 2023 suggest that violent crime was down from a pandemic spike and from 2022. While initial data, based on reports from about 80% of U.S. law enforcement agencies, is in line with external research from the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, the FBI will not publish finalized crime data for 2023 until the fall. [The Associated Press, 3/20/24 ]
• Fox News has failed to adequately cover FBI reporting showing that crime rates have decreased, despite the network’s overall fixation on crime coverage. Earlier this year, after running nearly 400 weekday segments on migrant crime in the first 10 weeks of 2024, Fox largely ignored a March release of the FBI’s quarterly report showing that crime in the U.S. dropped significantly last year. By July, Fox had run nearly 1,000 migrant crime weekday segments in 2024. In August, Media Matters reported that Fox did not cover new data on the air showing that violent crime had dropped sharply in major cities in the first half of 2024, even though the network aired over 4.5 hours of violent crime coverage in the same time period. [Media Matters, 3/13/24 , 4/3/24 , 7/16/24 , 8/15/24 ]  
• Right-wing media more broadly have been attacking the FBI crime stats, claiming they have been falsified or altered to benefit Democrats. This claim is based on research by former Trump official Mark Morgan, a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center and president of the Coalition for Law, Order and Safety. Morgan’s research uses a different (smaller) data set than the FBI data and compares current rates of violent crime to pre-pandemic crime rates from 2019. [Media Matters, 4/17/24 ; Washington Examiner, 4/5/24 ; The Heritage Foundation, accessed 8/22/24 ; Coalition for Law, Order and Safety, accessed 8/22/24 ]
• Morgan’s Coalition for Law, Order and Safety is now claiming that crime is up by 9.6% in 66 cities compared to 2019. A Fox News article falsely cites the data in its subheadline, writing, “Violent crime is actually up nearly 25%, independent data analysis shows.” The data cited claims only that “aggravated assault” is “up nearly 25%” in comparison to 2019. [Fox News, 8/17/24 ]
• In part, right-wing claims that the data is wrong are based on the right-wing assertions that large cities like New York and Los Angeles did not submit their data, which is misleading. While it is true that many large cities failed to produce data in 2021 as the FBI switched reporting systems, that issue was almost entirely eliminated in 2022. As crime reporter and data analyst Jeff Asher points out, “There were 18,884 agencies representing 333 million people active in the UCR program in 2022. Of that total, over 15,700 agencies representing around 311 million people reported data in some manner that year (~94 percent population coverage).” [Substack, 6/17/24 ]

Right-wing media are misrepresenting data to incorrectly suggest crime rates are increasing

• Fox host Lawrence Jones falsely claimed the NYPD and LAPD did not submit their crime data to the FBI in 2022. Jones: “While the Biden-Harris administration claims crime rates are falling, they failed to mention a major law enforcement agency like the NYPD and the LAPD didn't submit their crime report to the FBI in 2021 and 2022.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends , 8/21/24 ]
• When Fox host Brian Kilmeade said, “They keep saying crime is going down,” co-host Ainsley Earhardt argued, “Violent crime is not.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends , 8/21/24 ]
• After Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) claimed there was a massive crime spike under the Biden-Harris administration, Fox host Jesse Watters said, “They’re not really reporting all the cities to the FBI.” Watters added, accusing Democrats of ignoring crime victims, “When you put a face on it, it just shames the Democrats, who have been just so out to lunch on a life-and-death issue. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime , 8/20/24 ]
• On The Five , co-host Greg Gutfeld falsely claimed that reporting on a decrease in crime is a “hoax” because “many cities are no longer reporting the stats to the FBI.” Gutfeld: “Another dangerous hoax is saying crime is down. The only reason you can say that is because many cities are no longer reporting the stats to the FBI. When a narrative goes against your senses — what you hear, what you see — trust your senses. Everyone of us intimately knows a victim of crime if we haven't been a victim ourselves, so again this is not like lying about crowd size. This is a lie that hurts.” [Fox News, The Five , 8/20/24 ]
• Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins cited Mark Morgan’s group, suggesting violent crime has increased by comparing current numbers with pre-pandemic crime rates from 2019. Jenkins: “The Independent public policy group Coalition for Law, Order and Safety argues that according to their analysis, it’s actually up across 66 major cities. You can see from January to June 2019 data — for that same period in 2024 shows a 9.6% increase in total violent crime, with aggravated assault up nearly 25%, murder up 6.4%.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends , 8/20/24 ]
• Jones brought up violent crime rising by “9.6%” but didn’t specify that this rate reflects the change since 2019. He said to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: “When you look at inflation, it’s up 19.4%, when you look at the southern border, it’s 8.1 [million] encounters, when you look at crime — violent crime — across 66 major cities, it’s up almost 10% at 9.6%. Is that a record that you can run on?” [Fox News, Fox & Friends , 8/20/24 ]
• Kilmeade parroted Morgan’s data, claiming there has been an increase in crime. Kilmeade: “Look at right now, they’re looking at 9.6% increase in total crime. Nearly 25% increase in aggravated assault. 6.4 increase in murders. All negative numbers.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends , 8/19/24 ]

Trump shooter spent months searching for target before choosing him, reveals FBI

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Failed Assassination Attempt on Trump Unveiled

Thomas crooks made a concerted effort to target a major event before deciding on a trump rally in pennsylvania. the fbi's investigations reveal his extensive research into the republican and democratic campaigns. despite this, his motives remain unclear, and he acted alone without influence from foreign powers or substances..

In a detailed plot to target a high-profile event, Thomas Crooks set his sights on a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, according to FBI officials on Wednesday. Crooks, 20, conducted exhaustive searches on both Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden before registering for the July rally.

"We observed a sustained and meticulous effort to plan an attack," stated Kevin Rojek, the FBI's top official in western Pennsylvania, during a phone briefing. Initially surveying various targets, Crooks honed in on the Trump rally, viewing it as a 'target of opportunity.'

The FBI is still trying to determine Crooks' motives for his attempted assassination on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. His computer activity showed a variety of ideological interests, but nothing definitive. Questions linger about security measures and his ability to climb a building and fire shots. While the FBI investigates, several congressional and government probes are also underway.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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Gunman in Trump assassination attempt saw rally as ‘target of opportunity,’ FBI official says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The gunman in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump searched online for events of both Trump and President Joe Biden, repeatedly looked up information about explosives and saw the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a “target of opportunity,” a senior FBI official said Wednesday.

Investigators who have conducted nearly 1,000 interviews do not have a motive for why 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump during a July 13 campaign rally but they believe that he conducted “extensive attack planning,” including looking up campaign events involving both the current president and former president, particularly in western Pennsylvania.

The FBI analysis of his online search history reveals a “sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some event, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,” Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters Wednesday in the latest in a series of briefings on the investigation.

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Once a Trump rally was announced for July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, “He became hyper-focused on that specific event and looked at it as a target of opportunity,” Rojek said. Crooks’ internet searches in the days leading up to the rally included queries about the grounds where the rally was held, “Where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show?” “Butler Farm Show podium and “Butler Farm Show photos.”

In the 30 days before the attack, the FBI says, Crooks did more than 60 internet searches related to Biden and Trump, including seeking the dates of both the Democratic and Republican national conventions. FBI Director Christopher Wray has previously revealed that one week before the shooting, Crooks did a Google search for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?”

That’s an apparent reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the shooter who killed President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.

The new details add to an emerging portrait of Crooks as a highly intelligent and reclusive man who investigators say in the years before the shooting had taken an eerie interest in explosives and major events involving prominent public figures, but whose internet searches across major political parties have frustrated efforts to assign a simple motive or to establish why Trump himself would have been targeted.

“We have a clear idea of mindset, but we are not ready to make any conclusive statements regarding motive at this time,” Rojek said. The FBI has also not found that anyone else had advance knowledge of the shooting or that Crooks had conspired with anyone else.

The FBI found explosive devices in his car and home, and investigators say his internet searches revealed that since at least 2019 he had looked up information about bomb-making materials.

The FBI has said that Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was struck in the ear by a bullet or a bullet fragment in the assassination attempt. Crooks fired eight shots from an AR-style rifle. One rallygoer was killed and two others were injured before the gunman, who was positioned on the roof of a building less than 150 yards away, was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.

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• 07 June 2024
• Correction 11 June 2024

FBI asks scientists for trust in taking anti-Asian bias seriously

• Neil Savage

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

In a rare meeting between the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the academic community on Thursday, members of the FBI sought to reassure researchers of Asian descent that their concerns over discrimination are being heard. The 6 June public forum , held at Rice University in Houston, Texas, was lauded by participants as an important step in building trust, although several said that much more work remains to be done.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01704-2

Updates & Corrections

Correction 11 June 2024 : An earlier version of this story spelled Gisela Perez Kusakawa’s name incorrectly.

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A key US government surveillance tool should face new limits, a divided privacy oversight board says

FILE - The FBI seal is pictured in Omaha, Neb., Aug. 10, 2022. A sharply divided privacy oversight board is recommending that the FBI and other agencies be required to get court approval before reviewing the communications of U.S. citizens collected through a secretive foreign surveillance program. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal spy agencies should be required to get court approval before reviewing the communications of U.S. citizens collected through a secretive foreign surveillance program, a sharply divided privacy oversight board recommended on Thursday.

The recommendation came in a report from a three-member Democratic majority of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency within the executive branch, and was made despite the opposition of Biden administration officials who warn that such a requirement could snarl fast-moving terrorism and espionage investigations and weaken national security as a result.

The report comes as a White House push to secure the reauthorization of the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is encountering major bipartisan opposition in Congress and during a spate of revelations that FBI employees have periodically mishandled access to a repository of intelligence gathered under the law, violations that have spurred outrage from civil liberties advocates.

Section 702 permits allow spy agencies without a warrant to collect swaths of emails and other communications from foreigners located abroad, even when those foreigners are in touch with people in the United States.

Officials in President Joe Biden’s administration have said the program is essential for disrupting foreign terror attacks, espionage operations from Russia and China and cyberattacks against critical infrastructure . But many Democratic and Republican lawmakers say they won’t vote to renew Section 702 when it expires at the end of the year without major changes targeting how the FBI uses foreign surveillance data to investigate Americans.

The privacy board recommended that the program be renewed despite being divided about what reforms were needed.

The opposition to reauthorization has united unusual bedfellows, bringing together civil liberties-minded Democrats who have long supported limits on government surveillance powers with Republicans still angry over what they see as abuses during the investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

A central point of contention is analysts’ use of the foreign intelligence database to search for information about people, businesses or phone numbers located in the U.S. Those queries are permissible if there’s reason to believe they will retrieve foreign intelligence information. The FBI can also search the database if it believes it will turn up evidence of a crime, though a court order is required to review the results of those queries.

A succession of unsealed court opinions in recent months have revealed FBI violations in how those queries have been done, including improper searches of Section 702 databases for information related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and the 2020 protests following the police killing of George Floyd. FBI officials say significant safeguards have since been imposed.

In a recommendation Thursday that critics say would impose a significant hurdle and mark a dramatic break from the status quo, three members of the board said executive branch agencies, with limited exceptions, should have to get permission from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to read the results of their database queries on U.S. citizens.

“The scale of U.S. person queries, the number of compliance issues surrounding U.S. person queries, and the failure of current law and procedures to protect U.S. persons compels the Board to recommend a new approach,” the report said.

Underscoring the blurred political lines of the debate, the two Republican members of the board joined the White House in objecting to the proposal as unduly burdensome. Those two members refused to sign on to the report issued by their colleagues and instead issued their own document lambasting some of the conclusions.

“Eliminating U.S. person queries, or making it bureaucratically infeasible to conduct them — as the Majority recommends — would effectively destroy the crucial portion of the program that enables the U.S. government to prevent, among other things, terrorist attacks on our soil,” they wrote.

Separately, the White House said that seeking a judge’s permission to read through intelligence that’s already been lawfully collected was legally unnecessary and would interminably slow national security investigations that require fast action.

“That is operationally unworkable and would blind us to information already in our holdings that, often, must be acted upon in time-sensitive ways in order to prevent lethal plotting on U.S. soil, the recruitment of spies by hostile actors, the hacking of U.S. companies, and more,” a National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement.

“We urge Congress to continue to work with us on alternative reforms that can strengthen Section 702 this reauthorization cycle without causing the type of detrimental effects to U.S. national security that this recommendation would generate,” the statement added.

Speaking Thursday at a luncheon at the National Press Club, Gen. Paul Nakasone, the director of the National Security Agency, said the U.S. must balance national security needs with civil liberties and privacy.

“It can’t be out of balance,” he said. “That’s my concern and just being able to balance that equation. And that’s something we always work towards.”

Jamil Jaffer, founder and executive director of the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s law school and a senior Justice Department official at the time the law was created, was more pointed. He said in a statement that the position of the board’s majority would create a “wall” between law enforcement and intelligence and “represent a drastic break from the consistent view of all four presidents to have served” since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was formed in 2007 following a recommendation from the Sept. 11 commission, intended as a way to create checks and balances on the government’s expanding spy powers. The five members are nominated by the president and receive Senate approval.

Follow Eric Tucker on X at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP .