Personal details related to many FBI agents have been reportedly breached by a hacking group known as ShinyHunters. The hacking group claims that they have obtained the data from the people who had applied for jobs at the agency via the company’s official website. The FBI has also confirmed that they are aware of the claims made about the unauthorised activity affecting FBIjobs.gov and are investigating the incident. Not only that, but the agency’s Special Agent applicant portal was also unavailable on Tuesday. Here’s everything you need to know about the FBI data breach, including what happened and what prompted ShinyHunters to carry out the attack.
According to the reports, the ShinyHunters, the hacking group behind the alleged breach, claimed to have obtained sensitive information linked to almost all FBI agents and people who had applied for jobs with the bureau. The alleged data included names, agent status, email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses.
Not only that, but the group also claimed that the information about spouses, including Social Security numbers, was also a part of the stolen data. 404 Media have also reportedly obtained a sample of the alleged information that appeared to contain details on about 5,000 people identified as FBI agents.
ShinyHunters also claimed that they have accessed the FBI’s criminal justice and human resources systems. However, at the time of writing the FBI has not confirmed the extent of the breach.
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While describing the attack, the hacking group reportedly said that it used a security flaw in Oracle’s PeopleSoft platform to gain access to the FBI’s jobs website. Moreover, it also claimed that the attack was not carried out for financial gain.
Instead, ShinyHunters have demanded that the FBI change or withdraw statements it previously made about the group. The issue began in May, when the bureau issued an advisory warning that ShinyHunters had used harassment tactics against victims and their families, including threatening messages and swatting.
The group had disputed the FBI’s description, saying that they were not the one behind the attack and someone else had carried out incidents while using its name.
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At the time of writing, the FBI has acknowledged the issue and said that it is investigating it. However, it has not yet determined the scale of the breach.