A top FBI official on Tuesday made an unusually direct warning to hacking group ShinyHunters after the group claimed it breached the law enforcement bureau’s systems, saying the hackers should communicate with the agency.
FBI Assistant Director Brett Leatherman, in a video posted to social media on Tuesday, told ShinyHunters that the recent arrest of a man in the Netherlands should serve as a warning to the group that other members may be next.
“Other groups believed anonymity or their friends would protect them, and they were wrong,” said Leatherman, head of the bureau’s Cyber Division, directly addressing ShinyHunters.
“You know how to find us, and we know how to find you,” Leatherman said. “I suggest you reach out first while the choice is still yours.”
The FBI, in a written statement published on X that accompanied the video, said that the Dutch National Police arrested one of the alleged heads of ShinyHunters, which it said launched cyberattacks in the United States and the Netherlands.
Alluding to the capture of the suspected member, Leatherman said in the video that arrests also have a way of forcing suspects “to talk,” that equipment seized by law enforcement can be used to find other members, and that “the longer you stay in this, the more we learn about you.”
Leatherman’s request to open a channel of communication between law enforcement and the hackers is the latest indication of just how seriously the bureau is taking the suspected breach.
Responding to the recent media attention, ShinyHunters said in a statement to news outlets on Monday that it would not release the FBI data.
“Since the very beginning we had made our decision that we would never publish this data. We have never intended to nor have we ever planned to,” the group stated.
It also said that the breach was part of a “marketing campaign.”
Earlier in September, ShinyHunters said that it hacked the FBI on its dark-web website, while the group was questioned by Reuters in an online chat.
The newswire service reported that it could not verify the group’s claims, and added that attempts to reach alleged victims whose data were already compromised in past breaches were unsuccessful.
The FBI has not publicly said whether its systems were breached, but a spokesperson told The Epoch Times last week that it is “aware of claims regarding unauthorized activity affecting” the FBI’s jobs website.
“While the point of breach is still undetermined—whether a third-party or the FBI’s enterprise—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,” the FBI said in another statement.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, ShinyHunters is described as a cyber-criminal group that specializes in large-scale hacks and extortion, targeting tech, finance, and retail companies.
A ShinyHunters member from France was sentenced in 2024 in a U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington State, to three years in prison on identity theft and wire fraud charges, the Department of Justice said.
The man, Sebastien Raoult, was arrested in Morocco in 2022 and extradited to the United States in 2023, where he faced charges.
The FBI did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times request for comment on Tuesday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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