FBI investigating claim hackers have stolen details of all its agents

The FBI is looking into claims from a cyber-crime group that it broke into bureau systems and obtained personal records on nearly all its staff, roughly 38,000 people, according to BBC News.

The group, calling itself ShinyHunters, says it holds detailed files on every agent, including names, job titles, badge numbers, home addresses, phone numbers and information about spouses, BBC News reported.

Ciaran Martin, who previously led Britain's National Cyber Security Centre, told the BBC that if the claims turn out to be accurate, it would rank among the most severe data breaches on record.

In a post on X, the FBI confirmed it was aware of the allegations and said it was pursuing the matter with urgency, working to establish whether its own systems or those of an outside contractor had been compromised.

According to BBC News, the hackers say they infiltrated FBI servers on a Monday night and reached out to journalists the following day, sharing sample files and screenshots as proof. The broadcaster said it reviewed a limited portion of the material and it appeared authentic. Reuters has reported that some of the leaked information touches on staff assignments tied to sensitive operations, including work targeting Chinese and Russian intelligence services as well as drug trafficking organizations, per BBC News.

ShinyHunters is described as an international hacking network with roots believed to trace back to France. The group has previously claimed responsibility for breaches affecting Rockstar Games in April and the Canvas education platform in May, BBC News reported.

The hackers say they exploited a weakness in Oracle's cloud infrastructure, which the FBI uses, to gain entry into several internal systems. These reportedly include the FBIJOBS recruitment portal, the FBI BEAST platform used for background checks on staff and applicants, FBI MedLink, which stores medical records, and FBI BICS, a system containing investigative case data, according to BBC News.

Notably, the group says its motive was not financial. Instead, according to a message posted on the dark web and reported by BBC News, the hackers are demanding the FBI withdraw a public advisory issued in May that labeled ShinyHunters a threat actor exploiting stolen data claims to extort victims. The bureau's original warning said the group typically targets large firms in sectors such as technology, finance and retail, often walking away with millions of customer records at a time.

The hackers reportedly gave the FBI a one-week deadline to retract or amend the advisory, threatening to release the full trove of stolen data if their demand is not met, BBC News said.

The FBI has not responded to the BBC's requests for further comment beyond its public statement, in which it said it was working closely with third-party vendors linked to the FBIJobs website to limit any potential fallout.

Cybersecurity professionals offered differing takes on the incident. William Wright of Closed Door Security described it to the BBC as an act of retaliation intended to shape public perception of the group and warned it shows no organization is beyond reach. Andrew Brandt of Huntress suggested the brazen nature of threatening a federal law enforcement agency could backfire, telling the BBC that the hackers must believe they are unlikely to be caught to take such a risk.