- The FBI is investigating alleged unauthorized activity involving FBIjobs.gov
- ShinyHunters claims to have obtained sensitive records involving bureau personnel and applicants
- The alleged intrusion reportedly involved Oracle PeopleSoft and AWS GovCloud
The FBI is investigating an alleged cyber intrusion involving its employment website after the ShinyHunters hacking group claimed it obtained sensitive information on bureau personnel and job applicants, NextGov/FCW reported Tuesday.
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What Is Known About the Alleged Data Exposure?
The group claims to have accessed FBI systems and obtained records containing information on employees and people who sought jobs with the bureau.
A file shared with Nextgov/FCW purportedly contained information associated with nearly 5,000 FBI employees, including names, residential addresses, telephone numbers and details involving spouses and siblings. Some people identified in the file were confirmed online as FBI employees. The records reportedly covered positions including special agents, intelligence analysts, attorneys and student trainees.
The full data set has not been authenticated.
FBIjobs.gov temporarily displayed a maintenance notice Tuesday. The FBI subsequently said it was investigating reports of unauthorized activity involving the site.
How Does ShinyHunters Say It Gained Access?
A representative of the group told 404 Media that the alleged intrusion began Monday night through what the group described as a previously unknown flaw in Oracle PeopleSoft. The hackers claimed they subsequently reached servers hosted in Amazon Web Services‘ GovCloud environment and took 2 to 3 terabytes of data.
PeopleSoft is also used elsewhere in the federal government. The Army’s move of its personnel and pay system to Oracle US Defense Cloud is the largest PeopleSoft implementation worldwide, with more than 1 million users.
ShinyHunters is also seeking changes to a May FBI warning about the group. The alert described alleged harassment tactics including threats and swatting. The group disputes those allegations and gave the FBI one week to retract or revise the warning.
