FBI investigates after ShinyHunters hackers claim theft of agents' personal data

The FBI is investigating a cyberattack that took its recruitment website, FBIjobs.gov, offline beginning Tuesday; the site remained down as of Wednesday morning. The bureau confirmed it was examining reports of unauthorized access tied to the portal but offered no further detail, according to Fox News · RT.

The extortion group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach, telling Reuters it had obtained data on nearly every FBI agent as well as people who previously applied for jobs at the bureau. The compromised data reportedly includes agents' names and home addresses, Social Security numbers, work assignments, and in some instances the names of relatives, according to a sample reviewed by Reuters. ShinyHunters said on its dark-web site that the attack was retaliation for a May 2026 FBI public service announcement that warned organizations about the group's tactics and urged victims not to pay ransom or extortion demands, cautioning that "threat actors often use their real or exaggerated claims of access to sensitive or personal information to prompt payment from victims."

ShinyHunters, active since at least 2019, has previously been tied to a range of major breaches, including an alleged theft of millions of records from Rockstar Games and a May attack on the Canvas learning platform that disrupted schools nationwide. Anthropic said earlier this month it had detected hackers connected to the group trying to misuse its artificial intelligence tools. The group has also claimed past targeting of Microsoft, Pluto TV, AT&T, Ticketmaster, and several Ivy League universities.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News · RT’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News · RT →