The FBI announced on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, that it is investigating a claim by a cybercriminal group that it breached the FBIJobs.gov portal and compromised personal information of employees. The hacking group, known as ShinyHunters, stated it gained access to the recruitment website and threatened to release the data publicly if the FBI does not retract a public service announcement (PSA) it issued about the group in May.
The group characterized the FBI's earlier statements in the PSA as "disinformation" and claimed the hack was a retaliatory measure. ShinyHunters is a cyber-extortion organization that frequently targets companies to steal data and threatens to publish it on the dark web.
A representative for ShinyHunters claimed to have accessed the jobs portal on Monday, September 21, and subsequently gained entry to other agency programs, allegedly stealing between 2 and 3 terabytes of files. While the FBI acknowledged the group's claims and the potential compromise of personally identifiable information (PII), the bureau stated the exact point of breach—whether through its own systems or a third-party provider—remains undetermined. A former FBI agent confirmed to NBC News that a sample document provided by the hackers as evidence contained authentic sensitive information.
Cynthia Kaiser, former deputy cyber director of the FBI, stated that because agents often sign their names to court documents, the publication of physical addresses and details about their families could lead to physical harm or targeting by criminals. The scale of the alleged theft, if ShinyHunters' claim of 2 to 3 terabytes of data is accurate, would represent a significant volume of records, though the exact number of individuals affected has not been confirmed.
The FBI said it is working with third-party providers that support the jobs website to mitigate risk. The jobs portal was reported as inaccessible on Wednesday. ShinyHunters has set a deadline of one week from Wednesday to publish the stolen files if the FBI does not retract its May PSA.