FBI Investigating Claims That ShinyHunters Stole Data on Its Agents
The cybercrime group ShinyHunters (read more here) claims to have stolen 'very sensitive' data on 'almost all' FBI agents, following a series of extortions and hacks.
September 23, 2026 - 9:16 am
The entrance to the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the FBI’s longtime headquarters in Washington DC. (Credit: Ceri Breeze via Shutterstock.com)
During the past year, ShinyHunters has been extorting companies and last week took over a rival gang's leak site. Now, they've targeted the FBI itself.
The FBI confirmed on Tuesday that it is investigating a possible breach of its online jobs portal after ShinyHunters stated they had stolen personal information on FBI agents and applicants.
“The FBI is aware of claims regarding unauthorized activity affecting FBIjobs.gov and is currently investigating,” the bureau said in a statement.
The breach was first reported by 404 Media, which received a sample of data covering 5,000 purported agents, including names, home addresses, phone numbers, and details of their spouses.
Two sources with knowledge of the breach told Politico that investigators consider the claims credible and view the incident as a significant counterintelligence failure.
It is still unclear how ShinyHunters gained access. According to Politico, attackers may have exploited a vulnerability in Oracle PeopleSoft, a human resources software platform.
ShinyHunters claimed they used a previously unknown flaw but this has not been verified by investigators. Politico noted that the group had previously used a PeopleSoft zero-day exploit against other organizations in June, a vulnerability that Oracle later patched, so it is possible they reused that exploit on an unpatched system.
Unusually for a criminal group, ShinyHunters says they want a correction rather than money. In May, the FBI published an alert describing the group’s methods after an attack on the Canvas learning platform knocked thousands of schools and universities offline.
The hack was meant to force the bureau to "correct or simply remove" it.
This is the second major breach of FBI systems this year, following a breach in April where China-associated hackers gained access to a wiretapping system.
The group has asked for the FBI to stop referring to them and has given the agency a lot more to address.
Story by Ana-Maria Stanciuc
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