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Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

m-hodges

Comments (355)

  • fmajid
    GMail, like Apple, has specific enhanced security programs available for Politically Exposed Persons:https://landing.google.com/intl/en_in/advancedprotection/The fact the Director of the FBI did not avail himself of this just reiterates how incompetent he is, in addition to being corrupt as heck.
  • everdrive
    Interesting, and not all that implausible. The real test: his personal email should be pretty uninteresting except for stuff like HIPAA, amazon purchases, communications with friends / family. (good for HUMINT) But other than that, there shouldn't be anything in there which should make the news. It'll be interesting to see whether or not that bears out.If they wanted to maintain access, they certainly wouldn't celebrate it publicly, which is why I assume they want to release information. But, there shouldn't be anything damning to release. ie, there ought not to be if the director is acting professionally. We'll see how the facts bear out. I also suppose it's possible they're just going for any win they can and there's nothing interesting here whatsoever, or it's a really boring secondary address or something.
  • nullable_bool
    Gone are the days of the strong silent type running the roles of high power in the government. He is a real embarrassment and I feel sorry for his mother.
  • paxys
    A couple of DOGE teenagers were able to casually walk in and steal the entire country's social security and healthcare data (and probably more), and we were cheering them on. There is still no accountability, and it has probably already been sold to the highest bidder. So this would be the least surprising thing in the world.
  • unparagoned
    It’s all fine since he didn’t use it for official business right, right…
  • dlev_pika
    I still can’t get over the fact that *Kash “Stay in my lane” Patel* is heading the FBI
  • paxys
    I feel like sending phishing emails for penis enlargement pills would take down half the current administration.
  • Ms-J
  • mplanchard
  • macNchz
    I've been wondering if we'd see a cyber campaign emerge in this conflict. To my knowledge Iran seems to have pretty advanced cyber capabilities and increasingly fewer reasons to hold back. Gloves-off cyber war doesn't sound good to me. The US CISA already been cut back, has lost "virtually all of its top officials"^, doesn't have a permanent director, and is operating at a further reduced capacity because of the DHS shutdown.^ https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-senior-official-...
  • mattbis
    I really want to know how they did it.. was it some terrible password?He doesn't strike me as the kinda person even using a local password manager; like keepass.Somebody needs to find this out.I doubt it was gmail support... surely it could not be via his phone sim, and if he didn't have two factor on; That would be so funny.I'm tempted to check out the dark web or the telegram, but i'd rather not do either of those things.
  • mlmonkey
    > On their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said . . . .Anybody have a link? You know, for science ...Edit: Apparently, just last week the DoJ snatched their domains: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-i...
  • kevincloudsec
    Forget the Iran attribution for a second. The FBI director's personal email was already in leaked credential databases from prior breaches.
  • Ms-J
    This is great.It couldn't happen to a more corrupt person and organization!The Handala group has promised even more.Get it while it's hot!
  • hmokiguess
    Was he running openclaw on his unpenetrable system by any chance?
  • sv123
    Clowns, all the way down.
  • 7174n6
    I'm sure it will be embarrassing for him personally, but not a breach of U.S. government systems.Kudos to CNN for publishing a balanced take on it.
  • ThaDood
    If you check their telegram channel they have some humorous photos and his resume.
  • throwawaysoxjje
    But his emails!
  • k310
    A great many experts in the military, medicine, disaster relief, and cybersecurity { the list goes on } were fired.It's almost as if the nation were being weakened on purpose.Don't get mad, get Vlad. Or just prepare for the long-desired Rapture.[0] and which politicians seem to be working very hard to being about (the Apocalypse part, anyway)[0] https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/29/us/iran-israel-evangelicals-p...> Prophecy, not politics, may also shape America’s clash with IranSo, is prophecy OK in a pitch deck? Asking for a friend.
  • Razengan
    Oh a while ago everything bad that happened to or in the US was the fault of Russians, now I guess it's gonna be Iranians.
  • bcjdjsndon
    Looking good there, murica, looking good
  • chao-
    From the administration that brought us "We are currently clean on OPSEC", I can't claim surprise. Disappointment, but not surprise.Nor, however, can I take the statements of malicious actors at face value. They hacked a personal email address, but that does not mean "the FBI’s security was nothing more than a joke".
  • anon
    undefined
  • CrzyLngPwd
    Where did the article go?
  • mjmsmith
    "Iran, if you're listening..."
  • pixl97
    >“This isn’t an FBI compromise — it’s someone’s personal junk drawer,” he said.Eh, with how many people in the current administration seem to use out of band channels to communicate very important things who knows what else they located.
  • b8
    Not surprising as email providers like Yahoo's security are a joke. A former CIA director got his personal emailed pwned as well.
  • noosphr
    Imagine a world where gpg encryption was the norm instead of something that only works reliably in Emacs.
  • nickpinkston
    Iran... if you're listening...We'd love to see all of those Epstein files.
  • griffzhowl
    But just a personal account with materials reportedly from 2011-2022, not an FBI breach
  • caaqil
    If you read the news with enough cynicism, you'll realize that rules like formality, password strength or cybersecurity hygiene are for the average Joes, not the morons/perverts who run the world.
  • morkalork
    No worries. As long as rigorous due diligence was followed when vetting him as a candidate, there will surely be nothing embarrassing or harmful found in his personal emails.
  • basisword
    How the heck is the buried down to page 4 after one hour?? The head of the FBI having his email hacked is a pretty big tech story.
  • ck2
    I'm sorry but nothing can ever be more embarrassing for that man who wrote this book to get that jobhttps://www.amazon.com/Plot-Against-King-Kash-Patel/dp/19555...What an absolute clownBut far more seriously, imagine the danger he has put this country into by firing so many critical people, some specifically and uniquely for Iran and Middle-East defenseLet's hope we don't get another 9/11 in the next 1000 days because they are completely unprepared and won't ever see it coming, maybe even on purpose
  • lern_too_spel
    This is the end of his high profile bureaucrat career. Inevitably, something will show up in the emails that will get airplay as embarrassing to Trump, and Trump will just say that he should have protected his password better and ask for his resignation.He doesn't have a face for Fox News, so he'll have to try to parlay his past closeness with the administration for lobbyist money, but if he gets shunned by the people left in the administration, he's got to go back to his public defender job.
  • jameskilton
    But ... but her emails!
  • BenFranklin100
    I’m surprised no group has hacked the Epstein files, given the extreme interest.
  • trhway
    Hegseth - Signal appNoem - habeas corpus definition she gave at the Congress hearingKennedy Jr - vaccines and the rest of his view on medicineNow Patel's unhackable FBI.I think the world has changed, and i really need to update my expectations of what is new normal. It is like in tech when paradigm shift happens, and you're either go with the new paradigm or get irrelevant.
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  • PilotJeff
    BRING IT ON
  • upheaval7276
    I'm no fan of this administration, at all, but this seems like a big fat nothingburger. They hacked a personal gmail account, not a government account, not government infra. Why is this not a failing of Google instead of the government? And surely the hackers would have eagerly released anything damning, but nothing damning seems to exist. What am i missing here?
  • OhMeadhbh
    Certainly the FBI and GMail having gaps in their operational information security isn't news.
  • rixed
    This is quite misleading and partisan to present this as "FBI director's personal email" when the emails far predate his current role.If I had downloaded those emails, which I haven't because I know of no website that archives the internet, and if I had read them, which I haven't because that would be a breach of someone's privacy, then certainly I would have figured out that it contains no spicy state secrets. But why spend one hour assessing an information when you can get clicks by suggesting something bigger?Those supposedly Iranian hackers surely know how to hack the western media to get attention.I found it actually more informative to read on the sad history of the Dena, the ship whose victims this leak was dedicated to, so it's not been a complete waste of time.