--- title: Senator asks US government watchdog to review how feds... description: Senator Ron Wyden has sent a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office asking it to launch a comprehensive review of how the FBI, DEA, ICE's Homeland... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/senator-asks-us-government-watchdog-to-review-how-feds-use-hacking-tools-hrnwagtwx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Senator asks US government watchdog to review how feds use hacking tools | daily.dev og:description: Senator Ron Wyden has sent a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office asking it to launch a comprehensive review of how the FBI, DEA, ICE's Homeland... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/senator-asks-us-government-watchdog-to-review-how-feds-use-hacking-tools-hrnwagtwx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/HrnWagTWx.png og:image:alt: Senator asks US government watchdog to review how feds use hacking tools og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Senator asks US government watchdog to review how feds use hacking tools **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Senator Ron Wyden has sent a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office asking it to launch a comprehensive review of how the FBI, DEA, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, and the Secret Service use hacking tools and spyware against Americans. Wyden points to a lack of transparency, noting the government publishes no annual reports on hacking operations unlike wiretaps and pen registers, and that DOJ and FBI have repeatedly rebuffed congressional transparency requests. He wants GAO to investigate potential misuse of these tools, how agencies acquire and secure them to prevent leaks, and how courts are informed about risks to innocent bystanders when warrants are requested. Wyden cites the case of former L3Harris executive Peter Williams, who stole and sold hacking tools to a Russian broker that were later used by Russian spies against Ukraine and Chinese cybercriminals against crypto holders, as well as the FBI's 1999 use of keystroke-logging malware against mobster Nicodemo Scarfo. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [US courts will start publishing how often the government uses spyware](https://daily.dev/posts/us-courts-will-start-publishing-how-often-the-government-uses-spyware-zzq8jslbc) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Wyden Siren Goes Off Again: We’ll Be “Stunned” By What the NSA Is Doing Under Section 702](https://daily.dev/posts/the-wyden-siren-goes-off-again-we-ll-be-stunned-by-what-the-nsa-is-doing-under-section-702-vilqo7tnn) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Confused about which VPN is right, US senator asks the NSA for guidance](https://daily.dev/posts/confused-about-which-vpn-is-right-us-senator-asks-the-nsa-for-guidance-rwhhuvfxr) · Ars Technica · 9 upvotes · 2 comments - [FBI seizes hacking tools it says China used to attack NASA, DOE, US Senate and other critical networks](https://daily.dev/posts/fbi-seizes-hacking-tools-it-says-china-used-to-attack-nasa-doe-us-senate-and-other-critical-networ-ivv0bofqj) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/senator-asks-us-government-watchdog-to-review-how-feds-use-hacking-tools-hrnwagtwx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Senator asks US government watchdog to review how feds use hacking tools","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/senator-asks-us-government-watchdog-to-review-how-feds-use-hacking-tools-hrnwagtwx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/senator-asks-us-government-watchdog-to-review-how-feds-use-hacking-tools-hrnwagtwx"},"datePublished":"2026-08-21T13:07:54.190Z","dateModified":"2026-08-21T13:08:23.684Z","description":"Senator Ron Wyden has sent a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office asking it to launch a comprehensive review of how the FBI, DEA, ICE's Homeland...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e37660fd304f1eb796a3ac145e4f75b6?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e37660fd304f1eb796a3ac145e4f75b6?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCrunch","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCrunch","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/senator-asks-us-government-watchdog-to-review-how-feds-use-hacking-tools-hrnwagtwx","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,cyber","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCrunch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Senator asks US government watchdog to review how feds use hacking tools"}]} ```