Have you noticed that not much has been reported about the FBI hack? When the hack was first reported, it was all over the place. After nearly a week since its initial reporting, much of mainstream media has roughly been quiet about the whole thing. 404 Media has stayed on it, especially since they initially broke the story. Their latest reporting indicates that some members of its own FBI Hacking Team have been revealed in the leak.

“The group responsible, ShinyHunters, shared a list of 5,000 alleged FBI officials with 404 Media,” they reported. “404 Media verified parts of the data by cross-referencing it with open source records available in the research tool OSINT Industries, and previously compromised data in Darkside, a tool made by cybersecurity company District 4.”

Some of the titles within the leak are linked to agents investigating China and Russia. Some that were tracking visitors to child abuse sites on the dark web. They tested some of the phone numbers that were in the link and found them to be true.

The hack contained thousands of FBI officials’ personal data. This included their addresses, phone numbers, and even their spouses. It revealed members of the FBI’s secretive hacking team, potentially revealing who exactly is in that unit.

FBI Hacking Team Exposed in FBI Hack

The FBI “is aware of a cyber-criminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the FBIJobs.gov portal and alleged impact to FBI employee personally identifiable information (PII),” it said in a statement. “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.”

While the news has been downplayed in the media, it does bring to light much of the cyber security issues by the current administration. The Trump administration has downplayed the vitalness of needing to strengthen security.

What ShinyHunters plans to do with this information is uncertain. In the initial reporting, they claim it isn’t for financial gain. However, their threat was a bit insinuating along the lines of “what we plan to do is not something I’d call extortion, maybe coercion.”

ShinyHunters claims the FBI made “false allegations” in a previously published report. The FBI asserted that ShinyHunters exaggerates its claims of access to sensitive data to elicit payment. Also claiming, the group sends threatening text messages and phone calls to victims and their families. On occasion performs swattings. In the post, ShinyHunters said it is “allowing you [the FBI] a time of 1 week to correct” or remove the report.

What they plan to do after the seven days have passed is unclear. Perhaps then they will do what the FBI claims. We’ll stay on it.