FBI Investigates Major Hack of Jobs Portal and Exposure of Employee Data

A tour bus drives past the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, US on February 3, 2025 [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced an active investigation into a security breach on its jobs website, following claims by a hacking group that they acquired sensitive records concerning thousands of employees.

“The FBI is aware of a cybercriminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the fbijobs.gov portal and alleged impact to FBI employee personally identifiable information,” the agency stated on Wednesday.

“While the point of breach is still undetermined — whether a third-party or the FBI’s enterprise — we are actively and aggressively investigating this matter and working closely with those third-party providers that support fbijobs.gov to mitigate any and all risk.”

Multiple news organizations, including Reuters news agency, verified seeing portions of the leaked files. The group taking credit, known as ShinyHunters, alleges the total cache spans between two and three terabytes.

According to Reuters, the compromised records contain specific details regarding numerous bureau officials’ assignments, such as operations targeting Chinese spies, Russian intelligence, and drug cartels. ShinyHunters asserted on Tuesday that it successfully breached the FBI and extracted records belonging to a vast number of current and former personnel.

The collective stated it is withholding the complete dataset until the bureau retracts a critical statement published about them in May. On Wednesday, the group mentioned it was attempting to restrict the widespread dissemination of the personnel data in the interim.

The FBI's May statement previously labeled ShinyHunters as “threat actors” who frequently harass victims by leveraging “their real or exaggerated claims of access to sensitive or personal information to prompt payment from victims.”

The agency added that the group “may falsely claim to have sensitive or compromising information, including embarrassing photographs or videos of victims, which frequently do not exist.”

The FBI has faced repeated cybersecurity challenges. In March, the bureau reported it was examining “suspicious activities” within an internal network holding sensitive data tied to surveillance operations and investigations. During the same month, a pro-Iranian hacking group alleged it compromised an account belonging to FBI Director Kash Patel, publishing dated photographs, a professional resume, and additional personal documents from over ten years ago.

The fbijobs.gov portal remained offline as of Wednesday afternoon.