Hackers have created a nightmare for embattled FBI Director Kash Patel after claiming they stole personal data on every employee at the bureau, as well as every person who had applied for a job.
In a statement on Tuesday, the FBI said that ShinyHunters, a notorious hacking gang, said it managed to get its hands on every employee’s name, home address, phone numbers, dates of birth, and even details about their spouses. The gang managed to deface the agency’s website on Tuesday, writing, “This site has been seized by ShinyHunters.”
The group then trolled President Donald Trump by ending the message with the president’s trademark “thank you for your attention in this matter.” According to 404 Media, which first reported the breach, one of the hackers issued a threat to the Trump administration.
“What we plan to do is not something I’d call extortion, maybe coercion,” the hacker said. They added that their plans were not “financially motivated.”
Usually, the gang sticks to stealing data, demanding a ransom to get it back, and threatening to dump the files if the unfortunate victim does not pay. The FBI did say that it was aware of the activity.
“The FBI is aware of claims regarding unauthorized activity affecting FBIjobs.gov and is currently investigating,” the agency said in a statement to The Daily Express U.S. To prove that they mean business, the gang released a sample of 5,000 records showing addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth.
404 Media reported that some of the leaked phone numbers matched people in open-source intelligence databases, and several were linked to Justice Department personnel. Messages left on the FBI job site seemed to go further and claimed that the gang, in addition to the phone numbers, also had the health records of both former and current employees.
“We have a lot more than we claim here,” the group said. The site was later taken offline with a message saying that the Special Agent Portal was “currently unavailable.”
It was reported that the FBI had previously warned that ShinyHunters-linked criminals use personal information to harass victims and their families. Representatives said the group had exploited a previously undiscovered flaw, known as a zero-day, in Oracle’s PeopleSoft software.
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In a statement, the FBI said it is aware of the breach and was investigating (Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
As if they were not content enough to hack the FBI, the group also claimed to have accessed Amazon’s AWS GovCloud servers, a cloud service built to hold sensitive U.S. government data, and made off with two to three terabytes of files. The breaches come as Patel, 46, has faced scrutiny for his many controversies since starting at the bureau last year.
Just last week, Patel faced a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over the changes in the FBI’s hiring standards involving prostitution and bestiality. The Trump appointee defended the changes, saying they were intended to allow victims of the crimes to apply for jobs at the FBI without being automatically rejected.
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