Iran-Linked Hackers Breach FBI Director's Personal Email (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0181124058
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/27/1813256/iran-linked-hackers-breach-fbi-directors-personal-email
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/iran-linked-hackers-claim-breach-of-fbi-directors-personal-email-doj-official-2026-03-27/
> Iran-linked hackers have [1]broken into FBI Director Kash Patel's personal email inbox , publishing photographs of the director and other documents to the internet, the hackers and the bureau said on Friday. On [2]their website , the hacker group Handala Hack Team said Patel "will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims." The hackers published a series of personal photographs of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique convertible, and making a face while taking a picture of himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum.
>
> The FBI confirmed that Patel's emails had been targeted. In a statement, bureau spokesman Ben Williamson said, "we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity" and that the data involved was "historical in nature and involves no government information." Handala, which presents itself as a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers, is considered by Western researchers to be one of several personas used by Iranian government cyberintelligence units. [...] Alongside the photographs of Patel, the hackers published a sample of more than 300 emails, which appear to show a mix of personal and work correspondence dating between 2010 and 2019.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/iran-linked-hackers-claim-breach-of-fbi-directors-personal-email-doj-official-2026-03-27/
[2] https://handala-team.to/kash-patel-current-director-of-the-fbi-hacked/
Handala Hack Team (Score:5, Funny)
Plz post more of those "deer in headlights" photos of Patel.
Re: (Score:2)
> Plz post more of those "deer in headlights" photos of Patel.
Is there any other kind? Every photo of him I've seen looks like the result of a poorly formed query processed by a janky LLM.
double standards (Score:1)
A sitting president can get busted with his DNA on a young intern's clothing and nothing really happens. But the media will make hay out of a private citizen's email being hacked many years before he was a public figure. Um....sure.
Re: double standards (Score:4, Informative)
Lewinsky never got free trips on government jets and a protective detail assigned to her. Those benefits are reserved for Kash Patel's medicore-country-singer sugar baby girlfriend.
Re:double standards (Score:4, Informative)
NOTHING HAPPENS?
Seriously?
Were you AROUND in the late 1990s? The President got impeached after years of the cable news networks talking about LITERALLY NOTHING ELSE.
What is wrong with you?
Re: (Score:1)
I think what he meant to say, is that if Lewinsky had been a decade younger (12 instead of 22), then nothing would have happened.
Re: (Score:2)
> I think what he meant to say, is that if Lewinsky had been a decade younger (12 instead of 22), then nothing would have happened.
There's zero chance the GOP would have let that slide.
But i wonder how many knew or suspected of Hastert's unsavory predilections when they were happening
Re: (Score:2)
> Were you AROUND in the late 1990s? The President got impeached after years of the cable news networks talking about LITERALLY NOTHING ELSE.
I remember those years. A scandal could last years. Now I wake up to a new scandal every other day. Public is so swamped with these political scandals that they do not know what to focus on. Every new scandal dilutes the previous one and starves it of attention. And some people give up trying to keep track. They are exhausted. And many others land in the disbelief z
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I know another guy that grabs women by the pussy.
Re:double standards (Score:4, Informative)
Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYqKx1GuZGg
Re: (Score:2)
No, I actually can't. I'm not quite long enough.
Any particular reason you brought it up?
Re: (Score:2)
A jury even found him guilty. [1]https://abcnews.com/US/jury-de... [abcnews.com]
[1] https://abcnews.com/US/jury-deliberations-underway-jean-carroll-battery-defamation-case/story?id=99183870
This guy... (Score:3, Insightful)
Quite possibly the most incompetent FBI director in history. He's been in office for a year...couldn't someone at the FBI have secured his digital footprint in that time? Oh wait, he fired many career agents with this type of expertise and Trump also neutered CISA. Perhaps he was too busy on "business" trips involving smashing down beers at the Olympics. Or sugar-daddying his girlfriend, who is young enough to be his daughter, and desperately trying to make her a country music star. Meanwhile, where is Nancy Guthrie? What about those people named in the Epstein files?
Re: (Score:1)
His name even sounds shady. Imagine you see a late night commercial for a used car lot and the owner is named Kash Patel. Also sounds like a tv preacher begging for money.
Re: (Score:2)
What's not to trust about "Kashyap Pramod Patel"?
Re: (Score:2)
So, foreign names sound shady to you? There's a word for that, but it seems to have slipped my mind...
Re: (Score:2)
> So, foreign names sound shady to you? There's a word for that, but it seems to have slipped my mind...
it hasn't slipped my mind how many Right-thinking people lost their ****ing minds over the name of Barack HUSSEIN Obama.
and they still haven't recovered
Re: (Score:2)
I do not recognize his pronouns so I will use his given name Kashyap Pramod Patel.
Re: (Score:2)
There have only been 8 others.
Name one even close.
I bet his password was something like KA$HRUL3Z.
"Iran, if you're listening..." (Score:3)
I feel like we're stuck in a time loop with a a really screwed up read head.
I so, so very look forward to pissing on several graves. I'll happily be arrested in Arlington Cemetery, so long as they let me shake first.
How is the lack of govt information relevant? (Score:4, Insightful)
Assuming it's remotely true (and there's good reason for thinking it isn't), it still means the FBI director was negligent in their choice of personal email provider, that the email provider had incompetent security, and that the government's failure to either have an Internet Czar (the post exists) or to enforce high standards on Internet services are a threat to the security of the nation (since we already know malware can cross airgaps through negligence, the DoD has been hit that way a few times). The FBI director could have copied unknown quantities of malware onto government machines through lax standards, any of which could have delivered classified information over the Internet (we know this because it has also happened to the DoD).
In short, the existence of the hack is a minor concern relative to every single implication that hack has.
Re: (Score:2)
If the data is really that old, it sounds like they might've infiltrated a backup rather than the live account. Still a problem, but hopefully a little less so.
Re: (Score:2)
You can say that it might not be true but the justice department has already said that it is.
Re:How is the lack of govt information relevant? (Score:4, Informative)
> Assuming it's remotely true (and there's good reason for thinking it isn't), it
The FBI confirmed it. Unless you're saying you can't trust the officials appointed by this administration?
Re: (Score:3)
Republicans:
Button 1: Can't Trust the FBI.
Button 2: Trust everyone in this administration.
Re:How is the lack of govt information relevant? (Score:4, Insightful)
All people I know who got their email hacked were on outlook. None on gmail nor any other provider. I am really curious about if he was on outlook or not. I suspect some hacked outlook email accounts have nothing to do with the user being negligent and has to do with microsoft cloud being full of security holes.
I keep on blocking full /16 microsoft cloud networks from accessing my services while I only block single IPs from amazon and google cloud and get orders of magnitude less bad request from them then Microsoft. This leads me to suspect some vm instances running on microsoft cloud were hacked directly because of security holes in microsoft cloud itself, not because the owners of the vm instances were negligent.
Re: (Score:2)
Or much more likely, that the individual in question was reusing credentials across numerous sites. The email account was probably just fine but when your credentials get leaked elsewhere, this is what happens. Obviously no MFA setup either.
Or possibly, he used a weak password that wasn't that hard to brute force. I doubt this person is a computer security professional or even a hobbyist. The 99% just doesn't understand basic computer security.
Re: (Score:2)
"All people I know who got their email hacked were on outlook. None on gmail nor any other provider."
If you are not limiting to people you *personally* know, there was a pretty famous non-outlook case: [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
If you *are* limiting to people you personally know, I would suggest you may not have a representative sample.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podesta_emails
Now they know what he ordered from Amazon! (Score:2)
They may be able to find out his shoe size.
Probably just an easy password (Score:2)
Was it, "12345" like my luggage?
Re: (Score:2)
Probably maga2020! Like cheeto's previous twitter password. [1]https://www.theguardian.com/us... [theguardian.com]
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/16/trumps-twitter-account-was-hacked-dutch-ministry-affirms
/. never disappoints (Score:1, Interesting)
Came to see folks rooting for the brutal theocracy of Iran. Was not disappointed, lol
Re: (Score:2)
What are you seeing? I'm seeing people mocking Patel and the administration.. don't see cheers for Iran.
You don't think it's a bit funny the director of the FBI had his personal email hacked? It's more innocent than dropping a bomb on an elementary school at least.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm laughing at one the highest ranking law enforcement officers in the USA getting his personal email hacked. Who is rooting for Iran?
Nothing to see here (Score:2)
Everybody already knew Patel is a dork. There'd be nothing to see even in his government email, because he's basically out to lunch and out of the loop.
Re: (Score:1)
Disagreement is not a valid reason to downvote someone. Just take a look at the list of voting options - it isn't there. Instead, try using the comment box to argue. That's the civilized way to disagree.
I find that I rather enjoy our disagreements, but I like to argue. It's a character flaw, true, but without it I'd be perfect. And just imagine how insufferable that would be.
Re: (Score:2)
Can't be that famous, this is the first I've heard about that particular gem of gross malfeasance from the bureaucracy.
Re: (Score:3)
That's what the Iranians have been saying.
And you do know that your signature is a call for the complete genocide of the Jews, right? The slogan is a direct call to slaughter all the Jews between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. And you're joining in.
Re: (Score:2)
You can't really expect much from someone that thinks Iran is some how morally above the USA. As bad as we are, when was the last time we murdered 1000s of protesters? We've murdered two, and even those two have grey areas to argue about whether it was even murder or justified homicide. We still suck, but 1000s vs 2. But hey, maybe all these Iranian apologist would feel more comfortable moving to Iran. They should go and find out, since they hate USA so much.