Sept. 23 (UPI) — A criminal hacking group claims to have stolen thousands of sensitive records “on almost ALL FBI Agents and individuals who filed an application with the FBI for a job.”
The group, called ShinyHunters, posted the online message Tuesday, saying it breached the FBI’s online jobs portal to obtain the information, which includes agent and applicant names, addresses, phone numbers, spouse names, medical details and other data. That website remains offline Wednesday.
“We have compromised the FBI,” the message said. It was addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel and agency cybersecurity leader Brett Leatherman.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the FBI said that it is aware of the claims but that the point of the breach is still undetermined.
“We are actively and aggressively investigating this matter and working closely with those third-party providers that support FBIJobs.gov to mitigate any and all risk,” the statement said.
ShinyHunters said that it targeted the FBI because of an advisory the agency issued in May. In that advisory, the FBI warned that the group was known to harass hacking victims or family members with “real or exaggerated” claims and extortion attempts.
The group demand the FBI “correct or simply remove” the advisory, which the FBI issued after it identified ShinyHunters as responsible for a hack of the online learning system Canvas.
“We have been severely offended,” the group said in its statement. It gave the FBI a week to change or remove the advisory, although it didn’t say what measures it would take otherwise.
The New York Times reported that the group sent it and other news organizations a sample of what it claimed is the leaked information. “Cross references of some of that sample data against publicly available information online indicated that the materials are most likely legitimate,” The Times reported.
Source: U.S. News
You must be logged in to post a comment.