FBI Detains Teenager Linked to Group That Stole Data on 5,000 FBI Employees

PC Magazine reports: In September, the infamous ShinyHunters hacking group claimed it had infiltrated the FBI job recruitment portal, stealing confidential data belonging to 5,000 employees and even changing the FBI logo to its own. The group has been implicated in the hacking of numerous large and high-profile organizations over the years, from the European Commission to Grand Theft Auto-maker Rockstar Games and the software firm behind Canvas. Now, Reuters reports that a suspected leader of the group, Saif al-Din Khader, is being detained in the country of Jordan in the Near East.... He is reportedly still a teenager.
"Two sources said that he is helping the FBI and global law enforcement locate the other hackers in the group," reports Reuters: Their theft of what they claim are mountains of data on every single FBI employee has drawn comparisons to the allegedly Chinese-linked intrusion at the US Office of Personnel Management in 2015, which compromised sensitive details on millions of Americans who had been vetted for security clearances. A Reuters analysis of a sample of the data shared by ShinyHunters revealed that the data contained extensive personally identifiable information of FBI employees, sensitive job role information, and psychiatric and medical information. Khader's cooperation with investigators could be critical to helping contain — or at least understand — the damage. One source said he was walking investigators through his electronic devices and digital correspondence to help the FBI locate his cohorts...

There have been hints for days that ShinyHunters was experiencing disruption following the announcement of its break-in at the FBI. Beginning on Tuesday, Reuters was unable to reach ShinyHunters through the online account it previously used to communicate with journalists. Then, on Wednesday, the group's dark web site, where it had previously posted threats to the FBI, disappeared. FBI Director Kash Patel had been hinting at more arrests following the announcement that another alleged ShinyHunters member, Pepijn van der Stap, had been detained in the Netherlands...

Khader's identity, and his alleged connection to ShinyHunters, have long been known to security researchers. Last year, the independent journalist Brian Krebs reported that Khader was a key member of Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, an umbrella group of hackers that included ShinyHunters... Law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States, have struggled to arrest and prosecute members of related groups such as Lapsus$ or Scattered Spider, Reuters has previously reported. Sources told Reuters that the difficulty stems from the hackers' young ages, which can make prosecutions complex, or because the groups they belong to are so chaotic and informal, or because victims of their extortion attempts often decline to help investigators

Teenagers these days

[Slashythenkilly]

If the FBI cant even protect its own people as a top tier federal law enforcement agency, how are they going to protect anyone else. No wonder their advice to victims of ransomware is just to pay up.

Re:

[Marful]

Unless it's the government's property...

Oracle PeopleSoft seems like the Need SSN just to

[Joe_Dragon]

Oracle PeopleSoft seems like the Need SSN just to apply with the most shit UI for an job ever.

now does Oracle bill $$$$ for updates and / or. Don't run that well on newer Linux os' force you to use EOL llinux distros?

Re:

[thegarbz]

Shinyhunters has directly taken claim of scores of databreaches affecting 10s of millions of people in companies the world over. Fuck all the way off with your crime excusing bullshit.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Shinyhunters is an AI masquerading as a teen. Do you want to change your answer?

As "a teen"? The funny thing about stupid people (such as yourself) is that when you post bullshit it is so easily verifiable as such. Even if it was AI, there have already been multiple members of ShinyHunters arrested around the world, some of which admitted to being members of the group, and who thus far have not been teens.

I do want to change my answer:
Before: Fuck all the way off with your crime excusing bullshit.
After: Fuck all the way off with your crime excusing bullshit and be less of a retard.

Insurance

[ziggy182]

Surely shiny hunters could encrypt the entire archive, of stolen fbi data. Release it on torrent sites, so if their members get arrested the decryption key is released? Like what Wikileaks did a one point

Re: Insurance

[Net_fiend]

Yes, lets support felony fraud. WTF. You do realize there are normal people who work within the Federal government with families etc. Those same people actually do believe in doing the right thing...the one's you hear about are the bad apples or the one's who sacrificed a career over politics. The rest are normal people looking to make a paycheck to support their family and country.

Re: Insurance

[NagrothAgain]

That has absolutely nothing to do with the post you replied to. The simple answer is that the FBI most likely considers the data as already "in the wild" and so having an automatic publication mechanism isn't really any sort of a threat. You also lose any potential leverage the instant it releases, so that sort of mechanism is largely only useful for Individuals or very tight knit organizations.

Re: Insurance

[NagrothAgain]

You mention "bad apples." The saying is that a few bad apples spoils the WHOLE bushel. It is meant to show how failure to remove the bad ones makes the entire thing bad; every FBI agent has a shared responsibility and shared guilt for the actions of other agents.

Re:

[PPH]

The OPM [opm.gov] subcontractors "lost" government employee records (including security clearance information) so many times, the issue is moot.

We know it's juist kids ...

[PPH]

... because when Israeli intelligence breeches FBI security, they don't deface the home page.