FBI failed to inform the US officials about the Russian hackers plan

A secret investigation has found that FBI has failed to notify the US officials about the Russian hackers plan to break into their personal Gmail accounts. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), formerly the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.

Fancy Bear, a Russian government-aligned cyber espionage group has been targeting the US officials for a while. Investigations on Fancy Bear’s previous works shows that they worked in close alignment with the Kremlin’s interests to steal tens of thousands of emails from the Democratic Party. FBI routinely notifies individuals and organizations of potential threat information. But it has been ignorant to the Russian hacker’s plans and failed to notify it to the government. “It’s utterly confounding,” said Philip Reiner, a former senior director at the National Security Council, who was notified by the AP that he was targeted in 2015. “You’ve got to tell your people. You’ve got to protect your people.” Nearly 80 interviews with Americans targeted by Fancy Bear turned up only two cases in which the FBI had provided a heads-up.