The hacking group ShinyHunters claims it breached multiple FBI systems, defaced the bureau's jobs website, and stole between two and three terabytes of data on current and former employees and job applicants, including names, home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and details on employees' spouses. The same federal agency that routinely seizes hackers' websites may have had its own jobs site seized in return.
The FBI has not confirmed the breach and did not respond to repeated requests for comment Tuesday. The bureau's silence is notable given that it routinely issues public warnings about cybercriminals and their tactics. Reuters separately confirmed that ShinyHunters was claiming responsibility for the attack and the theft of employee data.
ShinyHunters sent 404 Media a sample it says came from the breach. After checking and attempting to verify the data, 404 Media found the records appear to be real.
404 Media reported:
“The representative provided 404 Media with a sample appearing to contain the personal data of 5,000 FBI employees. That data included an alleged address, phone number, date of birth, and in some cases details on their spouse. 404 Media put some of the sample phone numbers into open source intelligence tool OSINT Industries and found they did correspond to people with the same name as listed in the sample file. 404 Media also searched some of the records through compromised data tool Darkside, made by cybersecurity company District 4. That revealed some of the phone numbers are associated with U.S. Department of Justice personnel.”
The hackers had a simpler version of events:
"We hacked the FBI. We hold data on all FBI employees and applicants. We have names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and health information. We have data on their spouses. We breached HR, MedLink, and Criminal Justice Information Services. This was not about money. The FBI lied about us and we want them to retract it."
ShinyHunters also defaced the FBI jobs website Tuesday. The message posted there said the site had been "seized by ShinyHunters" and claimed personal and health information belonging to employees, former employees, and job applicants had been compromised. By Tuesday afternoon, the FBI jobs site showed both the public-facing portal and the Special Agent Applicant Portal as unavailable.
According to ShinyHunters, the breach started with a zero-day exploit in Oracle’s PeopleSoft software. The group claims it then reached FBI-managed AWS GovCloud servers and downloaded between two and three terabytes of data.
The group also told The Register that the breach reached deep into FBI operations, human resources, MedLink, and Criminal Justice Information Services. Neither Oracle nor AWS rushed to respond, leaving two major government contractors conspicuously silent while a hacking group claimed to have walked off with terabytes of federal law enforcement data.
ShinyHunters made clear this wasn't about a payday. A representative told The Register the attack was "NOT financially motivated." The group wants the FBI to retract what it says are false allegations about how it operates. That's an unusual demand. Criminal organizations don't typically hack federal law enforcement agencies to win a public relations dispute. But here we are.
Back in May, the FBI put out a bulletin warning the public about ShinyHunters, accusing the group of sending threatening calls and texts to victims and their family members and, in some cases, swatting them. The bureau also alleged the hackers sometimes falsely claim to have compromising photos or videos of victims. ShinyHunters flatly denies it all and apparently decided the best rebuttal was seizing the FBI's own website. Whether that's brazen or just reckless probably depends on whether the breach turns out to be real.
The central question remains unanswered: Did ShinyHunters actually get what it claims? The FBI won't say. While the bureau stays silent, current and former agents, and their spouses, are left wondering whether their home addresses are already circulating in criminal networks. The FBI has built its reputation on making other people answer hard questions. This time, it's their turn.