posted in Technology

‘We Hacked the FBI:’ Hackers Say They Have Data on All FBI Employees

A high profile hacking group claims it has breached multiple FBI-related services and stolen data “on all FBI employees and applicants.” A representative of the group, called ShinyHunters, told 404 Media the data includes FBI agents’ names, home addresses, phone number, and information on their spouse.

The data breach could be massively significant and may have all sorts of national security and counterintelligence implications. Criminals from the same ecosystem as ShinyHunters have previously used hacked data like phone records to track, intimidate, and harass the FBI agents investigating them. The highly sensitive data could also be a boon to foreign intelligence agencies who want to better understand how one of the most important law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the U.S. operates. And if the data fell into the hands of more criminals, FBI agents and their spouses could face serious threats to their safety.

“We hacked the FBI. We hold data on all FBI employees and applicants,” the representative of the group told 404 Media.

The representative provided 404 Media with a sample appearing to contain the personal data of 5,000 FBI employees. That data included an alleged address, phone number, date of birth, and in some cases details on their spouse.

www.404media.co/we-hacked-the-fbi-hackers-say-they-have-data-on-all-fbi-employees/
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Replying to @⁨thesohoriots@lemmy.world⁩

Instead, they hire the people who do it.

In wandering around the entrance to the rabbit hole, I came across the Wikipedia article about The Com, which is a lose umbrella organization that includes many hacker communities, including the one accused of hacking the FBI.

There’s this:

The Com is connected to a group of skinheads active in Russia and Ukraine responsible for random attacks on people and acts of murder.[14] Edward Coristine, a high-ranking employee of the DOGE, US government organization, was a former member of The Com.[15]

Replying to @⁨SarahValentine@pawb.social⁩

What you said was “I don’t care if they target a government agency I don’t like - they’re just another bunch of assholes out to make a profit.” not “even if they attack someone I don’t like, I still won’t celebrate it because I know what their motivation is.”.

In or out of context, "I don’t care if they target a government agency I don’t like"means the exact same thing. It’s a stand alone statement not impacted by your second sentence.

Your rephrasing makes more sense and the two parts of your sentence can not be separated without changing the meaning.

Replying to @⁨redditStinksSuperBad@lemmy.world⁩

In or out of context, "I don’t care if they target a government agency I don’t like"means the exact same thing. It’s a stand alone statement not impacted by your second sentence.

Incorrect on all counts. “Whether they attack someone I hate or not doesn’t matter” is what the complete sentence conveys. Quit playing semantic games to make me say the opposite. Actually just get blocked for being an unserious bad faith poster.

Replying to @⁨redditStinksSuperBad@lemmy.world⁩

In or out of context, "I don’t care if they target a government agency I don’t like"means the exact same thing. It’s a stand alone statement not impacted by your second sentence.

That’s just not true. The fact that it can form a complete sentence on its own doesn’t divorce its meaning from the surrounding context.

In my favourite example, “I want to make sure the children die with the parent” is a complete sentence, but outside of a programming context, it’s quite fucked up.

In this case, the sentence you quoted is equivalent to a parenthetical to add nuance to the second half you omitted: “They’re just another bunch of assholes out to make a profit (even if they target a government agency I don’t like).” It’s the opposite of a standalone statement: It’s the subordinate qualification to a different, standalone statement.

Just because you can quote it outside its context doesn’t mean that it’s independent of context.

Replying to @⁨redditStinksSuperBad@lemmy.world⁩

I’m really not sure why it seems like most people here think context matters, but you keep insisting that it doesn’t. The two parts of that second sentence, which you treat as separate statements, were literally linked with a dash. It’s also not like the statement or its parts stood alone:

The first sentence implies disapproval of the hackers’ previous antics. The second one first concedes that they also hit someone the commenter dislikes, which in that context is a clear setup for a “but”, which follows and makes it clear that this isn’t enough to redeem them, since the motive likely isn’t ideological nor political, but plain greed.

You’re taking a sentence in isolation and pretending its meaning is self-contained. That’s not how human language works.

Replying to @⁨luciferofastora@feddit.org⁩

It is syntactically two independent clauses (or a compound sentence) joined by an em dash rather than a single, indivisible thought. Each half contains its own subject and verb structure. Punctuation does not equate to inseparability. You assume second half acts as a pivot (“setup for a ‘but’”). But look at the actual words: there is no “but” or ideological reversal present. They were expressing two distinct emotional stances: a political/institutional cynicism (“I don’t care if they target a government agency I don’t like”) followed by a cynical motive attribution (“they’re just another bunch of assholes out to make a profit”).

Replying to @⁨redditStinksSuperBad@lemmy.world⁩

It is syntactically two independent clauses (or a compound sentence) joined by an em dash rather than a single, indivisible thought.

You’re mistaking syntactical shape for semantic content. Independent clauses can still have context-dependent meaning. In fact, that’s the norm for sentences placed together. By being in sequence, all three statements are implicitly connected.

What’s more, the dash explicitly signals that the thoughts are connected. That’s a common use of dashes: juxtaposition of opposed thoughts. They’re dependent both by the implicit context-dependency and by virtue of being marked as dependent.

Figuring out how the distinct statements are connected and how these dependencies shape them is a fundamental linguistic puzzle. You didn’t find the solution, which isn’t a bit deal, but even when you had the solution explained to you, you keep insisting there is none.

You assume second half acts as a pivot (“setup for a ‘but’”). But look at the actual words: there is no “but” or ideological reversal present.

“They hit someone I don’t like” is something you’d expect people to approve of, but in this context, it’s juxtaposed against both the preceding and succeeding statements of disapproval of their actions and motives respectively, which creates a contradiction: If they target someone you don’t like, aren’t you happy about that?

That contradiction is preemptively resolved by “I don’t care if … – …”. If you’re looking for words to pin the pivot to, those are the closest you’ll get. They express the semantic connection between the facts “they targeted someone I don’t like” and “I disapprove of their actions”: the former has no bearing on the latter.

a political/institutional cynicism (“I don’t care if they target a government agency I don’t like”)

I see your confusion here: “I don’t care if” isn’t actually part of the fact being presented. It’s not a distinct emotional stance, but rather part of the linguistic construct linking the independent statement “they target a government agency I don’t like” to the one following it. If anything, it’s the negation of an expected emotional stance.

Replying to @⁨redditStinksSuperBad@lemmy.world⁩

The statements aren’t the ones you claim though.

“I don’t care if it’s raining. I’m going for a walk.” doesn’t mean I never care about rain at all. It means that the fact that it’s raining has no bearing on my decision to go for a walk. I could join them with a dash to make their connection clear, but even if I don’t, the composite meaning is obvious.

“I don’t care if …” is the construct joining the two clauses into a full sentence, indicating that the first statement (“they target something I don’t like”) has no bearing on the second (“they’re still assholes”). The second part doesn’t itself have a bearing on the first, but the sentence as a whole and the disqualifying particle in particular do.

You split the sentence wrong, altering the meaning of the first clause by prepending a part that doesn’t belong to it.

Replying to @⁨CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world⁩

Mods abusing rule 3.

Edit - pointing out that concern over data security is a moot point after a gaggle of non-security cleared Musk datascrapers at the start of Trump’s term already stole untold data, and have no protocol to secure it like the government does is factual and poignant. “Be excellent to each other” is a flagrant abuse of censorship.

Replying to @⁨CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world⁩

in fairness, you called someone “retarded”. some people on here get triggered around the word “retarded”, even if they were not the target of the word, they somehow felt you meant they were “retarded”.

remember. don’t use “retarded” use “mentally deficient”.

just want to make sure everyone is aware here. even if you were talking about flame “retardant” material, it’s still not acceptable. the new term is “flammably deficient”.

Replying to @⁨tonytins@pawb.social⁩

The government needs to provide all FBI employees with 1 free year of credit monitoring. That free year is the resolution I’ve seen from the corporations that were hacked. Remember when a couple credit bureaus were hack multiple times and they provided this? The FBI should also provide compensation for the hack if employees sign up in time. Usually you get like $20 for the data leak.

Replying to @⁨tonytins@pawb.social⁩

We’ve all heard about breaches in security by hackers affecting so many millions of people, but I never hear about that data leak being used against the innocents. Like, it has no effect on we the poors.

They seem to hold our data for ransom, and steal crypto directly from the rich, because of course they do, that’s where the most profit is. And, that is why they’re so dangerous… to the rich.

If you dig into this a little you’ll see plenty of accounts of The Com associates doing awful things against children, but I suspect that’s a very small part of what a few of them do, it’s just hyped and pushed forward to make us hate them all. In fact it’s quite possible that within the larger community, those few players are themselves, shunned, the same way Christians shun but don’t condemn the more radical members of their cult. But, the only way to hear that side of the story is to be in The Com. We’ve all seen this happen in online communities--outsiders condemning an entire large group for the actions of a few, who are shunned within the group.

Remember, we’ll never get the whole story from one side, and the story we do get will be biased in favor of the side that tells it--there will always be distortions, lies of omission, and outright fabrications and lies. The same way we’re wary of content now because of AI, we should be skeptical of any claims made, and the more powerful the claimant, the more skeptical we should be that we’re getting the whole story.

en.wikipedia.orgThe Com - Wikipedia