A professional-Iranian hacking group claimed Friday to have hacked an account of FBI Director Kash Patel and has posted on-line what seem like years-old pictures of him, together with a piece resume and different private paperwork. Lots of these data gave the impression to be greater than a decade outdated.
“Kash Patel, the present head of the FBI, who as soon as noticed his identify displayed with satisfaction on the company’s headquarters, will now discover his identify among the many checklist of efficiently hacked victims,” mentioned a message posted Friday from the group Handala.
The message was accompanied by greater than a half dozen photographs of Patel, together with ones of him standing beside an vintage sports activities automotive and one other with a cigar in his mouth. The group additionally mentioned that it was making accessible for obtain emails and different paperwork from Patel’s account. Lots of the data appeared to narrate to his private travels and enterprise from greater than 10 years in the past.
The FBI had no fast touch upon Friday, however an individual conversant in the matter who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate nonpublic data confirmed {that a} private electronic mail account of Patel’s had been breached. It was not clear when the hack claimed by Handala might need occurred, however information stories from December 2024 mentioned that Patel had been knowledgeable by FBI that he had been focused as a part of an Iranian hack.
Handala is a pro-Iranian, pro-Palestinian hacking group that earlier this month claimed credit score for disrupting programs at Stryker, a Michigan-based medical expertise firm. Handala mentioned the assault was in retaliation for suspected U.S. strikes that killed Iranian schoolchildren. They’re a outstanding instance of the proxy teams that perform cyber assaults on behalf of Iran.
The Justice Division singled out Handala in an announcement final week by which it mentioned it had seized 4 net domains tied to Iranian hacking schemes and the threatening of dissidents.
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