The FBI is investigating an apparent breach of its networks after the cybercriminal group Shiny Hunters claimed on Tuesday to have stolen personal data belonging to thousands of federal agents. Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed the probe, which centers on the bureau’s FBIjobs recruitment website.
In a statement, the bureau said it was “aware of claims regarding unauthorized activity affecting FBIjobs.gov and is currently investigating.” The FBI’s job application portal was offline on Tuesday, with a notice saying the “Special Agent Applicant Portal” was “currently unavailable.”
The statement came hours after Shiny Hunters listed the FBI as a victim on its dark-web site. The hackers said they began accessing the data on Monday evening.
Shiny Hunters Says It Was “Offended” by FBI Advisory
The group framed the attack as retaliation, saying it was “offended” by a May 2026 FBI advisory that analyzed its extortion methods and advised victims not to pay. That advisory described Shiny Hunters as targeting “major companies across tech, finance, and retail, often stealing millions of customer records at once.”
Since then, the group has hacked several large healthcare organizations, leading an industry group to call it a “clear and present danger to the global health sector.”
Its endgame with the FBI remains unclear. Shiny Hunters demanded that the bureau remove or revise the advisory but claimed it was not “financially motivated” in this case. US government agencies typically do not pay ransoms to hackers.
What the Shiny Hunters Data Sample Shows
In a dark-web post and an online chat with Reuters, Shiny Hunters claimed to hold data on “almost ALL FBI Agents, and individuals who filed an application with the FBI for a job,” covering most of the bureau’s current and former employees. As proof, it offered what it said was a screenshot of a vandalized FBIjobs page along with a small sample of the stolen data.
Reuters could not verify the screenshot, though the site did appear to have been recently disrupted. The sample seemed to contain agents’ names, home addresses, Social Security numbers, assignments and, in some cases, the names of family members.
Reuters partially authenticated the records by checking details, including Social Security numbers, against credit bureau records and previously breached data preserved by dark-web intelligence firm District 4 Labs. In at least 10 instances, including that of FBI Director Kash Patel, the details appeared to match. A person familiar with the matter said job descriptions in the data also matched in some cases.
Still, Reuters could not establish where the data originated or whether it had been taken from the FBI’s internal systems, as the hackers claimed. Attempts to reach the people named in the sample were unsuccessful.
FBI Joins Growing List of Targeted Law Enforcement Agencies
The incident is the latest case of US law enforcement agencies being targeted by the cybercrime groups they investigate. In March, CNN reported a separate suspected cybersecurity incident on a sensitive FBI network used to manage wiretaps and intelligence surveillance warrants.
Last month, a likely Russian-speaking cybercriminal gang leaked what appear to be sensitive law enforcement files stolen from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A CNN review found the files seem to include information on targets of past ATF investigations and analyses of their phone communications.
In 2023, a ransomware attack on the US Marshals Service targeted the subjects of its investigations. That same year, hackers breached a computer system the FBI’s New York field office used in child sexual exploitation investigations, including one storing images related to the Jeffrey Epstein probe, according to people briefed on the matter.
