Hacker Threatens to Release FBI Employee Data

An unknown hacker published contact information for more than 9,000 Department of Homeland Security employees Sunday night – and the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation might be the next targets. The DHS details contain employee names, their work titles, telephone and fax numbers, department, state, and email addresses.

The hacker did not tell Motherboard how sensitive the data is, but noted that the attack was carried out by compromising the email account of a Justice Department employee.

Today the hacker posted the details on Twitter along with a screenshot of a warning page allegedly from a Department of Justice computer (shown above).

Several news outlets were contacted by the hackers on Sunday evening and given a preview of the data, including Vice’s Motherboard blog and FedScoop.

Calls placed to the phone numbers listed went directly to voicemail in most cases, but checks against other public staff directories confirmed the list.

This is a classic example of spear phishing, where hackers often pose as individuals within a company or organization to steal private information such as financial information or employee data. “This is not something we take lightly, and it’s important to note that at this time there’s no indication that any sensitive information was released”. What’s more, the hacker used the account to email Motherboard to provide further evidence of the access.

The Department of Justice is undeterred by the hacker’s outrageous claims.

The database appeared to be genuine and matches other online records. The OPM hack, revealed in June, exposed the deeply researched security clearances of 21.5m current and former government employees and contractors, from phone numbers to fingerprints.

Additionally, they also hacked into the JABS database and released details for 2,400 USA government officials and 80 Miami police officers. When the hacker ran into trouble accessing the portal, the hacker told Motherboard he called the department and said he was new and didn’t know how to access the portal. The hacker also used the #FreePalestine hashtag in a number of tweets.

Tweets from the Twitter account tweeting out the databases suggest that the hack was motivated by support for Palestine.

At the beginning of the CryptoBin post, the hackers claim, “This is for Palestine, Ramallah, West Bank, Gaza, This is for the child that is searching for an answer”.

“This is not one hack”, Adams said.