Iran-linked hackers have reportedly claimed that they broke into the personal email inbox of FBI Director Kash Patel and published a series of private photographs and documents online, marking one of the most sophisticated cyberattacks on a sitting US law enforcement chief. According to a report by news agency Reuters, the claim was made on Friday (March 27) by the hacker group Handala Hack Team, which also took responsibility for hacking the medical devices manufactured by Stryker – one of the biggest medical equipment maker in the US.
The report says that the hackers posted extensive material on its website along with a pointed message for the FBI Director: Patel “will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims.”
Hackers publish emails of FBI director online
The report claims that the hackers uploaded a collection of personal photographs of the FBI director, including images of Patel smoking and sniffing cigars, riding in an antique convertible and taking a selfie in the mirror while holding a large bottle of rum. Additional documents were also published alongside the photographs.
Reuters says that a Justice Department official confirmed that Patel’s email had indeed been breached, and said the material published online appeared to be authentic.
The news agency claims that Reuters reviewed a sample of the uploaded material, which appeared to contain a mix of personal and work-related correspondence dating from 2010 to 2019.
The news agency, however, says that they were unable to independently authenticate the emails but the personal Gmail address that Handala claims to have broken into matches an address linked to Patel in previous data breaches, according to records preserved by dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs.
Meanwhile, several accounts on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) have started to post photos purportedly from the breach and a message from Handala.
Read Iran-linked hackers’ ‘full message’ to Kash Patel
Who is Handala
Handala describes itself as a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers. As recently as March 11, Handala claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Stryker, a Michigan-based medical devices and services company, alleging it had deleted a massive trove of the company’s data and disrupting the firm’s operations for approximately a week.
