The FBI logo, broken up by lines of code. The FBI’s cybersecurity program is one of the leading investigators of cybercrime in the United States, but it, too, is vulnerable to hackers. (Shutterstock/BreizhAtao)

Agent Data Exposed in Recent FBI Hack

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A hacker collective known as ShinyHunters stole terabytes of data from FBI servers—including the identities and addresses of many active agents.

Combating cyberattacks is the prime mission of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) cyber program. It remains the leading federal agency for investigating cyberattacks and other intrusions, and this week, the investigation is into how it was hacked.

A high-profile hacking collective, known as ShinyHunters, confirmed that it had breached multiple FBI-related services and stole data and other information “on all FBI employees and applicants,” 404 Media first reported this week. That reportedly included agents’ names, home addresses, phone numbers, and even information on their spouses.

“The data breach could be massively significant and may have all sorts of national security and counterintelligence implications,” 404 Media wrote, noting that criminals from the same collective as ShinyHunter have sought out hacked data to “track, intimidate, and harass the FBI agents investigating them.”

This Isn’t the First Time the FBI Has Been Hacked

This isn’t the first hacking of the FBI, as the bureau’s external Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP) email system was compromised in 2021, and subsequently used to send out a false cyberattack warning. In 2023, hackers also breached a local computer system used by the New York field office for child exploitation investigations. That same year,........

© The National Interest