A prolific criminal hacking group said Tuesday that it had stolen a large tranche of sensitive personnel information belonging to thousands of F.B.I. officials in what would amount to a stunning breach of private data for the nation’s top law enforcement agency. The hackers, who call themselves ShinyHunters, said the records were stolen from an online jobs portal for the bureau and included names of current and former agents as well as applicants and corresponding home addresses, phone numbers, names of spouses, certain medical information and other data. The group does not appear to have yet leaked any of the data publicly.
The group demanded the F.B.I. An F.B.I. spokeswoman acknowledged the breach, saying that the bureau was aware of the claims and that it was investigating. She declined to comment further on the matter.
The jobs website remained inaccessible Wednesday morning after its homepage a day earlier featured a banner that read, “THIS SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED BY SHINYHUNTERS.” In an exchange with The New York Times, ShinyHunters described the personnel records it had, suggesting they concerned the private information of tens of thousands of people. News of the apparent hacking was reported earlier by 404 Media, an online cybersecurity and technology news publication. Former F.B.I. officials and cybersecurity experts who track criminal groups said that the breach appeared authentic and that it amounted to a potentially devastating security lapse and counterintelligence danger for the bureau.
Among other concerns, the personnel information of F.B.I. officials, if posted on the dark web, could be acquired by foreign intelligence agencies in China, Russia or elsewhere and weaponized for espionage operations. A more tangible concern is that the data could also be a road map for violent criminals to seek retribution against the F.B.I. agents who put them behind bars, said Cynthia Kaiser, a former senior F.B.I. official who oversaw major cyberinvestigations. F.B.I. agents sign their names to court paperwork submitted against criminal suspects but are generally trained to avoid letting sensitive personal information, such as home addresses or familial ties, easily surface online.
ShinyHunters is a well-known hacking collective that has been active for years and has claimed a string of major headline-grabbing breaches, though security researchers say the group has at times exaggerated or misrepresented its actions. It credibly takes responsibility for several notable hacks, however. In May, it said it had compromised an online learning system called Canvas that is used by thousands of schools and universities around the world, which led to the spring F.B.I. advisory.
The group also said it was behind attacks against Ticketmaster in 2024, which the hackers said had compromised the user information of more than 500 million customers. The apparent F.B.I. breach called to mind the vast theft more than a decade ago of about 20 million government employee and contractor records from the Office of Personnel Management. That heist, which the Obama administration blamed on the Chinese government, is still considered one of the worst cybersecurity failures on record in the United States.
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