Russia reportedly breached encrypted FBI comms in 2010

When the Obama administrationkicked out Russian operativesand seized compounds, it might have been for more than their meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Unnamed officialstalkingtoYahoo Newssay that some of those diplomats were involved in a counterintelligence strategy that breached FBI communications starting in 2010. Reportedly, the Russians had "dramatically improved" their decryption of some secure comms technology, including the radios used by mobile surveillance teams and the push-to-talk cellphones used as backups. The Russians could track and intercept the chats between agents, though it's not clear if that was possible in real-time.

The Russians could reportedly only crack "moderately encrypted" radio systems like those the FBI used, and not the strongest protections, but that was still worrying -- and it wasn't certain just how Russia compromised the systems. Some officials worried Russia might have a mole, but that wasn't clear. An anonymous CIA officer speaking toYahoo Newssaid that Russia had a habit of disguising human sources as technical attacks. They may have simply loitered in areas where they could listen in on conversations.

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