FBI Investigates Alleged Breach of its Own Applicant Portal

The FBI is investigating claims from cybercrime group ShinyHunters that it compromised the bureau’s employment website and obtained sensitive information about current and former agents and job applicants.

On Tuesday, a message on the FBI website FBIjobs.gov said it was “unavailable.” The FBI’s Special Agent Applicant Portal showed the same message.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, the FBI said, “The FBI is aware of claims regarding unauthorized activity affecting FBIjobs.gov and is currently investigating.” 

ShinyHunters made the claim on its dark-web site on Tuesday, and was questioned by Reuters in an online chat. Reuters said it could not verify the group’s claims, and that attempts to ​reach alleged victims whose data was already compromised in past hacks were ⁠unsuccessful.

The group said on its website and told Reuters that it targeted the FBI because the law enforcement agency made an announcement in May that detailed its methods of operation and told victims not to pay.

The FBI’s May public service announcement recommended to victims, “Do not send payment or respond to their demands.”

The FBI described ShinyHunters as a cybercriminal group specializing in large-scale data breaches and extortion. It said the group targets major companies in the technology, finance, and retail industries, often stealing millions of customer records.

The bureau warned at the time that members may exaggerate or falsely claim access to sensitive information to pressure victims into paying.

The group also uses threatening calls and text messages, harassment of victims and their relatives, and, in some cases, false emergency reports intended to prompt armed police responses, the bureau said. It has at times published stolen information on online data-leak sites operating on the Tor network.

A French member of ShinyHunters was sentenced in January 2024 to three years in prison and ordered to pay more than $5 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The Justice Department said Sebastien Raoult, then 22, participated in the hacking group for more than two years. Raoult and his co-conspirators created fraudulent business login pages and used phishing emails to obtain employee credentials. They then entered corporate systems, stole confidential and financial information, and searched the stolen material for credentials providing access to networks and cloud-storage accounts.

Prosecutors said the conspirators stole hundreds of millions of customer records and caused companies more than $6 million in losses. They sometimes threatened to publish or sell information unless victims paid a ransom.

Prosecutors sought a six-year sentence, arguing that Raoult understood buyers intended to misuse the stolen financial information. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik imposed three years, saying he believed Raoult’s arrest and imprisonment had affected him, but asked his family and friends to watch him upon his return to France.

More than 60 companies had their data advertised for sale on dark-web forums under the ShinyHunters name between April 2020 and July 2021, the Justice Department said.

Reuters contributed to this report.