FBI says contractor failure led to hack of its jobs website

The FBI says a security lapse by an outside contractor, not a failure of its own systems, is what let hackers into its recruiting website last month. Brett Leatherman, the bureau's Cyber Division Assistant Director, said Tuesday that the preliminary findings show the contractor never installed a patch that had been specifically issued to protect the platform. The FBI has dismissed the unnamed company and says it has taken steps to limit further risk and shield its employees, according to NBC News.

The cyber-extortion group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for breaching FBIJobs. gov. A representative told NBC News that the group used the site as a doorway into other agency programs and carried off 2 to 3 terabytes of files, though NBC News could not confirm that scale. Leatherman's statement appeared to accept that the group was behind the intrusion, and the bureau pledged to investigate with all available resources. He said several arrests have already been made.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted last week that a member of the group had been arrested on Sept. 15, which was before ShinyHunters publicly claimed the attack.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NBC News’s reporting. Read the full story at NBC News →