Hackers linked to Iran claim to have broken into the personal inbox of FBI Director Kash Patel, and released the director’s photos and other documents on the Internet.
On its website, the hacker group ‘Handala Hack Team’ said that Patel’s name will now “be added to the list of successfully hacked victims.”
A Justice Department official confirmed that Patel’s emails were breached and said that the material published online appeared to be authentic. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The hackers also did not immediately respond to the messages.
Handala, which describes itself as a group of pro-Palestinian hackers, is believed by Western researchers to be one of several pseudonyms (personas) used by Iranian government cyber-intelligence units. Handala recently claimed to have hacked Michigan-based medical equipment and services provider Stryker on March 11, and said that he had deleted a huge repository of the company’s data.
The private Gmail address that Handala claims to have been breached matches the address that was found to be linked to Patel in previous data breaches secured by dark web intelligence firm ‘District 4 Labs’. A sample of the content uploaded by the hackers appears to include a mix of personal and professional correspondence between 2010 and 2019.