- The FBI is investigating a hacking group's boast that it broke into the site where people apply for FBI jobs.
- 404 Media saw a sample of 5,000 people the hackers call FBI agents.
- A former FBI agent told NBC News one sample document was real.
- The group gave the FBI a week to fix or take down a May warning about it.
On Tuesday, a hacking group called ShinyHunters told the news site 404 Media that it had stolen data from the FBI. "We hold data on all FBI employees and applicants," a person speaking for the group said. The group says that includes agents' names, home addresses, phone numbers and details about their spouses.
404 Media saw a sample of 5,000 people the group says are FBI agents. It notes that criminals in the same hacking world have used stolen phone records to track and harass the FBI agents investigating them. And it says that if the data reaches more criminals, agents and their spouses could face serious threats to their safety.
ShinyHunters claims FBI data breach
On Wednesday, the FBI said it was looking into a claimed break-in at its jobs website, FBIJobs.gov, which was still offline that afternoon. It said it didn't yet know whether the breach was at the FBI or at an outside company that runs the site. The group told NBC News it got from the jobs site into other FBI systems. The full size of the data is still unknown. A former FBI agent told NBC News one sample document was real. 404 Media says the data covers at least thousands of FBI staff, including members of the FBI's secret hacking team.
FBI statement on the claimed breach, NBC News report on the claimed breach, 404 Media on the exposed hacking team
The group's demand is the strangest part. In May, the FBI put out a warning calling ShinyHunters a criminal group that steals data and squeezes victims for money. The group says parts of that warning are false. On Tuesday, the group gave the FBI a week to fix or take down that warning. "This is not a ransom, coercion, or extortion," its message says. NBC News, which read the group's post, reports it said the group would publish the stolen data if the warning stays up. AP, which also saw the message, says it didn't spell out what would happen.
PCMag report on the group's demand, FBI warning about ShinyHunters
