‘We have compromised the FBI’: Pokemon lovers boast of shocking hack on federal website

An FBI website was hacked by Pokémon enthusiasts.

This is not a joke.

‘Thank you for your attention to this matter.’

The hack that allegedly took place may have flown under the radar if not for the group leaving a public calling card to show the government agency had been compromised.

At the same time, an adjoining message showed a frightening display of access.

The hackers call themselves ShinyHunters, referencing the active pursuit in Pokémon games of rare Pokémon creatures. Their adopted symbol is a golden Poké Ball, used to capture such Pokémon.

ShinyHunters then circulated a message online taking credit for the hack, which reportedly contained personal information on 5,000 FBI agents.

“We have compromised the FBI. We hold very sensitive data on almost ALL FBI Agents and individuals who filed an application with the FBI for a job,” the message said, according to the Associated Press.

The claims were corroborated by 404 Media, which said the hacker group contacted the company to show the obtained information.

The FBI website in question was the agency’s job website — apply.fbijobs.gov — which found its own information replaced with the image of a Pokémon named Umbreon; the “Shiny” portion of the hacker group’s name likely refers to the rare type of Pokémon in the video game’s universe.

“This site has been seized by ShinyHunters,” the group wrote, akin to what the FBI puts on a website that has been taken down by the government.

The message added, “All FBI data was compromised including [personally identifiable information and protected health information] on incumbent and former FBI employees and all applicant information. We have a lot more than we claim here.”

“Thank you for your attention to this matter,” the message concluded.

Not only did the revealing hack compromise government employee data (addresses, phone numbers, spouse name), it allegedly revealed the FBI’s own hacking team too.

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The FBI’s Remote Operations Unit, which is known to be made up of the agency’s own decoders, had personal addresses, phone numbers, and in some cases spouses’ phone numbers exposed, 404 Media further reported. The website said it fact-checked the allegedly hacked info by cross-referencing other breached data to show, for example, one person had worked for the Secret Service.

“We hacked the FBI. We hold data on all FBI employees and applicants,” a representative for the hackers told the outlet.

On the other hand, the FBI has sent out a public statement indicating it is “aware of a cyber-criminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the FBIJobs.gov portal.”

The FBI managed to pull down the targeted subdomain, marking it for “scheduled maintenance.” Meanwhile, the agency said the “point of breach” was undetermined, and it was “actively and aggressively investigating this matter and working closely with those third-party providers that support FBIJobs.gov to mitigate any and all risk.”

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404 Media asked ShinyHunters if it planned on extorting the FBI, to which it said, “What we plan to do is not something I’d call extortion, maybe coercion.”

The group then claimed its efforts are “not finically motivated” and that the FBI has made “false allegations” against it by claiming the group exaggerates what it has gained access to.

The group wants those allegations taken down.

404 Media said the initial hacked data was verified by cross-referencing it with open source intelligence records and also by contrasting it with other previously compromised data.

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