A high profile hacking group claims it has breached multiple FBI-related services and stolen data “on all FBI employees and applicants.” A representative of the group, called ShinyHunters, told 404 Media the data includes FBI agents’ names, home addresses, phone number, and information on their spouse.
The data breach could be massively significant and may have all sorts of national security and counterintelligence implications. Criminals from the same ecosystem as ShinyHunters have previously used hacked data like phone records to track, intimidate, and harass the FBI agents investigating them. The highly sensitive data could also be a boon to foreign intelligence agencies who want to better understand how one of the most important law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the U.S. operates. And if the data fell into the hands of more criminals, FBI agents and their spouses could face serious threats to their safety.
“We hacked the FBI. We hold data on all FBI employees and applicants,” the representative of the group told 404 Media.
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.
We’ve all heard about breaches in security by hackers affecting so many millions of people, but I never hear about that data leak being used against the innocents. Like, it has no effect on we the poors.
They seem to hold our data for ransom, and steal crypto directly from the rich, because of course they do, that’s where the most profit is. And, that is why they’re so dangerous… to the rich.
If you dig into this a little you’ll see plenty of accounts of The Com associates doing awful things against children, but I suspect that’s a very small part of what a few of them do, it’s just hyped and pushed forward to make us hate them all. In fact it’s quite possible that within the larger community, those few players are themselves, shunned, the same way Christians shun but don’t condemn the more radical members of their cult. But, the only way to hear that side of the story is to be in The Com. We’ve all seen this happen in online communities--outsiders condemning an entire large group for the actions of a few, who are shunned within the group.
Remember, we’ll never get the whole story from one side, and the story we do get will be biased in favor of the side that tells it--there will always be distortions, lies of omission, and outright fabrications and lies. The same way we’re wary of content now because of AI, we should be skeptical of any claims made, and the more powerful the claimant, the more skeptical we should be that we’re getting the whole story.