WASHINGTON — The FBI said Wednesday it was investigating a criminal hacking group’s claims that it had stolen “very sensitive data” belonging to thousands of agents and applicants and that it had compromised the bureau’s jobs website.
“We have compromised the FBI. It did not say what would happen if the FBI did not do so within a week. “This is not a ransom, coercion, or extortion. Your federal policies do not apply here.
We hold very sensitive data on almost ALL FBI Agents and individuals who filed an application with the FBI for a job,” said the ShinyHunters message, which was directed to FBI Director Kash Patel and Brett Leatherman, the assistant director in charge of the bureau’s cyber division. In its message, ShinyHunters said it would give the bureau one week to correct or remove what it says are false allegations contained in an FBI public advisory from May that described the organization as a “cyber criminal group specializing in large-scale data breaches and extortion. ShinyHunters said in its message to the FBI that it was “offended” by those characterizations and demanded that the FBI remove those claims. This PSA is NOT financially motivated,” the hacking group’s message said.
“The FBI is aware of a cyber-criminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the FBIJobs.gov portal and alleged impact to FBI employee personally identifiable information,” the FBI said in a statement. It said that while the “point of breach” was 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 FBI described the compromised information as “historical in nature” and said it involved “no government information.”
