The FBI says it has not yet determined whether a breach of its FBIJobs.gov hiring portal originated inside the bureau’s own systems or through an outside vendor, even as a criminal hacking group claims it stole personal information belonging to nearly all FBI agents.
“The FBI is aware of a cyber-criminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the FBIJobs.gov portal and alleged impact to FBI employee personally identifiable information (PII),” the bureau said in a post on X Thursday. “While the point of breach is still undetermined — whether a third-party or the FBI’s enterprise — we are actively and aggressively investigating this matter and working closely with those third-party providers that support FBIJobs.gov to mitigate any and all risk.”
The group claiming responsibility, ShinyHunters, says it obtained data on nearly all FBI agents as well as people who applied to work at the bureau, according to Reuters. A sample of the data reviewed by Reuters reportedly included agents’ names, home addresses, Social Security numbers, job assignments, and in some cases the names of family members.
Jason Pack, CEO of Media Rep Global Strategies and a retired FBI supervisory special agent, told Fox News Digital that the key question for investigators is whether hackers merely accessed personnel records or reached deeper into classified systems.
“There is a meaningful difference between somebody obtaining personnel information and somebody gaining access to classified investigative systems,” Pack said. “Based on what we know right now, there is no indication they have the keys to the kingdom.”
Pack warned that combining personal details with information about an employee’s job function could make individuals easier targets.
“If an adversary knows who somebody is, where they work and what they do, they can build a much more believable scam around that person,” he said.
He also flagged a potential counterintelligence dimension if assignment data reached a foreign intelligence service.
“If a foreign intelligence service can associate particular people with certain assignments, it can help them identify individuals they may want to learn more about, approach or potentially assess for recruitment,” Pack said. “That does not mean that is happening here. It simply explains why assignment information can have value to an adversary.”
Pack cautioned that the hackers’ claims and what the FBI has actually confirmed remain two separate things, and said the bureau still must establish what was accessed, how the intrusion happened, and who was affected.
“The danger from stolen personal information does not necessarily end when the computer vulnerability is fixed,” he said. “Criminals may hold onto that information and use it weeks or months later.”
The FBI says it continues to work with the third-party providers that support FBIJobs.gov as it works to pin down the source of the breach and limit further exposure.
