The FBI has arrested a person believed to have worked with hackers who broke into bureau computer systems, the agency’s top official said on Oct 9, in a cybersecurity incident that’s exposed sensitive information about agency personnel.
Agents have arrested “another suspected co-conspirator” of the criminal gang that’s claimed responsibility for the breach, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel said on the social media platform X. He didn’t identify the person or say what charges have been filed. FBI representatives didn’t immediately answer questions about the arrest.
In September, the hacking group known as ShinyHunters said it accessed FBI employee information through a bureau career website, FBIJobs.gov. The group said it stole records revealing the home addresses of employees involved in investigating foreign spies, drug cartels and running covert surveillance operations – material that former FBI officials said could pose a serious risk.
FBI officials working to address the breach have told staff that they’re treating the incident as having potentially exposed information about all bureau employees, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition that they not be named because they weren’t authorised to discuss it publicly. The hackers shared records with Bloomberg News that appeared to identify thousands of FBI officials, but Bloomberg hasn’t independently confirmed the scope of the breach.
“This is the latest arrest this FBI has made in a matter of days involving this network, as we work non-stop to dismantle the group, pursue new leads and evidence, and act quickly,” Patel said in the social media post. “This arrest demonstrates the strength and reach of our efforts to protect Americans from cybercrime.”
Earlier this week, Brett Leatherman, the assistant director who oversees the FBI’s cyber division, said “multiple arrests” had already been made as part of the bureau’s effort to bring those responsible for the breach to justice. The FBI declined to answer questions about those arrests.
The hackers got into an FBI system through a vulnerability on a platform managed by a third-party organisation that failed to implement a security patch “explicitly issued to secure the platform,” Leatherman said in a statement. The FBI has “removed” the contractor, who Leatherman didn’t identify.
Patel said on Oct 9 that the bureau “will continue to work closely with our partners to disrupt what’s left of the ShinyHunters group and their associates, no matter where they operate.”
The FBI, along with many other US government agencies, has been hacked repeatedly in recent years. This spring, the FBI concluded that a breach of the networks it uses to manage wiretaps and other surveillance work qualified as a “major incident.” After hackers broke into AT&T Inc’s systems in 2024, FBI leaders warned staff that they believed hackers stole months of their agents’ call and text logs, Bloomberg reported in 2025. – Bloomberg
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