The FBI is requesting $21m and 80 new employees in abid to investigate emerging tech that could help the agency combat cybercrime.

In a budget request for fiscal year 2018, sent on 21st June, Andrew McCabe, acting director of the FBI, testified to the White House that the agencyis facing what it believes aresignificant challenges in gaining access to digital information even when it has the legal authority to do so. This notably includes cases that involve "drug traffickers using virtual currencies to obscure their transactions".

It is also the same narrative that the FBI's former DirectorJames Comey put forth last monthbefore theSenate Judiciary Committee.

The challenge, the agency has said,is that the FBI now requires more financial resources to investigate technologies and decipher information transmitted on the darknet. Elsewhere, it is also engaging in dialogues with companies that provide suchtechnology to educate them on the "corrosive effects" that information inaccessibility has on "public safety and the rule of law".

Earlier this year, the privacy-encrypted digital currency Monero (XMR), for example, drew attention from FBI for similar reasons.

A special agent working at the FBI's Cyber Division in New York City said at an event that the agency has concerns such technology will set roadblocks for criminal investigations.

"Developing alternative technical methods is typically a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process," the agency said.

FBI image via Shutterstock

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Illicit Cryptocurrency Use Targeted in Proposed 2018 FBI Budget ... - CoinDesk