The attack came to light after the news site 404 Media received a file containing stolen personal data. The data has been verified against public records and belongs to FBI employees and their spouses.
The intrusion began via a server from Oracle used by the human resources department to store information about job applicants. The perpetrators then moved on to a government cloud service at Amazon where the information was collected.
Demand for Deleted Report
Despite the amount of information, the group is not asking for a ransom.
Instead, they state that the purpose is to remove a publication from the agency that they believe contains false accusations. The group has not yet announced what will happen to the files if the demand is not met.
Shut Down Job Site
The group has also changed the appearance of the agency's recruitment page. Currently, the website indicates that it is closed for maintenance.
The agency has not yet commented on the incident. This is the second time this year that their systems have been hacked. Previously, unknown individuals managed to enter a system that handles surveillance. In addition, the agency director Kash Patel had his private email inbox hijacked by a hacker group.