ShinyHunters claims theft of FBI employee and medical data
ShinyHunters claims it stole sensitive data on thousands of FBI personnel, including medical records, and compromised FBI systems. The FBI is investigating whether its systems or a third-party provider was breached; the claims remain unverified.
Claims
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AllegedShinyHunters claimed it stole data about almost all FBI agents and people who had applied for jobs with the FBI.
4 of 4 sources“The group says it underestimated the scale of the data theft and now claims to hold sensitive information on around 60,000 current and former FBI staff.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was investigating unauthorised activity affecting FBIjobs.gov.
5 of 5 sources“The FBI has not responded to requests for comment. However, on Wednesday it acknowledged the breach and said it was "aggressively investigating" how it happened.”
FBIjobs.gov and the FBI Special Agent Applicant Portal were unavailable on Tuesday local time.
“both it and the FBI Special Agent Applicant Portal were "currently unavailable"”
The sample of allegedly stolen data appeared to include FBI agents' names, home addresses, Social Security numbers and assignments.
“The data sample appeared to contain information about FBI agents' names, home addresses, social security numbers, their assignments”
Reuters partially verified information in the sample against credit bureau records and previously breached data.
“Reuters was able to partially verify the authenticity of the information by running the details”
- 10instances
Instances in which sample details appeared to match external records
“In at least 10 instances, including in the case of FBI director Kash Patel, Reuters found details that appeared to match.”
AllegedShinyHunters said it targeted the FBI in response to a May 2026 FBI announcement about the group's methods.
4 of 4 sources“Instead, they are seeking a retraction of an FBI advisory published in May, which they claim "offended" them.”
- False
Reuters established that the allegedly stolen data came from the FBI's internal systems.
2 of 2 sources“the point of breach is still undetermined — whether a third-party or the FBI’s enterprise”
FBIjobs.gov was still offline on Wednesday afternoon.
2 of 2 sources“The jobs website ... remained offline as of Wednesday afternoon.”
AllegedShinyHunters said it was trying to prevent the FBI personnel information from circulating widely.
“the group said it was trying to keep the personnel information from circulating widely”
- 2terabytes
AllegedThe lower bound of the reported ShinyHunters data trove was 2 terabytes.
“a larger trove between two and three terabytes”
- 3terabytes
AllegedThe upper bound of the reported ShinyHunters data trove was 3 terabytes.
“a larger trove between two and three terabytes”
The FBI said the point of breach was undetermined.
2 of 2 sources“The FBI said it was still trying to determine whether the hackers had breached its systems directly or compromised a third-party provider.”
The claims that ShinyHunters stole FBI data could not immediately be verified.
3 of 3 sources“The hackers' claims should be treated with caution but that the breach appeared to be extremely concerning.”
The FBI said it was working with third-party providers supporting FBIJobs.gov to mitigate risk.
2 of 2 sources“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”
AllegedShinyHunters said its action was not financially motivated.
2 of 2 sources“Unusually, the hackers are not demanding money. Instead, they are seeking a retraction of an FBI advisory published in May”
The allegedly stolen data included fitness-for-work medical examination results, including blood and urine test results and doctors' notes.
“BBC News has seen samples of the stolen "fitness-for-work" medical examinations, which contain information such as blood and urine test results, and doctors' notes”
- 60,000people
AllegedShinyHunters claimed it had data on around 60,000 current and former FBI staff.
“The group says it underestimated the scale of the data theft and now claims to hold sensitive information on around 60,000 current and former FBI staff.”
The samples of allegedly stolen data included agents' full names, addresses, phone numbers, badge numbers and job titles.
“The samples shared with journalists appear genuine and include names, addresses, phone numbers, badge numbers, job titles”
AllegedShinyHunters said it would publish the full dataset in five days unless the FBI met its demands.
“The hackers ... say they will publish the full dataset in five days unless the FBI meets their demands.”
AllegedShinyHunters claimed it exploited a vulnerability in an Oracle cloud storage system used by the FBI.
“The group claims it exploited a vulnerability in an Oracle cloud storage system used by the FBI”