Hacked FBI data has sensitive information about employees’ intelligence roles

By Raphael Satter and AJ Vicens

WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - FBI data allegedly stolen by the hacking group ShinyHunters carries granular detail about scores of bureau officials’ job assignments, including sensitive work against Chinese spies, Russian intelligence, drug cartels, and more, Reuters has found.

The 5,000-line spreadsheet – said by the hackers to represent only a small piece of their claimed two- to three-terabyte trove – includes names, addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, social security numbers, and emergency contact details for what they claimed were thousands of FBI employees. It also includes details of assignments to specific field offices and, in some cases, to units engaged in high-stakes intelligence, security, or counterespionage work.

In a statement, the FBI said it was aware of "a cyber-criminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the FBIJobs.gov portal and alleged impact to FBI employee personally identifiable information." The bureau said the cause of the breach was still undetermined, but that it was "actively and aggressively investigating the matter."

The group said on Tuesday that it had breached the FBI and stolen data on a huge number of current and former FBI employees. It said it is holding the data hostage until the bureau rescinds an unflattering statement about the group issued in May.

Shinyhunters said in a statement Wednesday that it was trying to keep the personnel information from circulating widely in the meantime.

Although Reuters has not been able to authenticate the entire spreadsheet, it has been able to individually verify the details of more than 22 people by cross-referencing information in the hacked data with credit records and previous data leaks carried by the dark web intelligence platform District 4 Labs.