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FBI says ShinyHunters breach may have exposed staff data

newsSep 28, 202624989

An internal F.B.I. memo says the hacking group ShinyHunters may have stolen sensitive personal information on all F.B.I. employees, including current and former staff, raising safety concerns for personnel. The bureau declared the incident a major cybersecurity breach and warned it is likely to result in demonstrable harm to national security while rushing to protect its workforce. ShinyHunters provided a sample data set to 404 Media covering about 5,000 purported agents that included names, home addresses, phone numbers and information on spouses, and the group told 404 Media it would not publish the full haul after earlier giving the F.B.I. a one-week countdown. News reports say the extortion group claims to have taken more than 2 terabytes of data from the F.B.I.’s careers portal, and many employees first learned of the breach from press coverage rather than internal notice. Authorities have begun arrests tied to the broader ShinyHunters network, and officials are evaluating the scope of exposed applicant and employee records to determine next steps for protecting affected people.

Dustin Volz
@dustinvolz.bsky.social

New: FBI in internal memo says it believes ShinyHunters may have stolen private data on all employees. Fears of longterm consequences of breach magnify as hackers threaten to leak everything online by end of Tuesday. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/u...

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