Iran-Linked Hackers Dump FBI Director’s Emails
“The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks.”
Iran-linked hackers accessed the personal email account of FBI Director Kash Patel and released hundreds of emails and photos online, moving quickly after federal authorities targeted the same network.
The FBI confirmed the breach and said the material did not include classified information.
“The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity. The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information.”
The group behind the breach, Handala, posted more than 300 emails and photos from what appears to be Patel’s personal Gmail account. The material includes years of personal correspondence, travel records, family exchanges, and images that confirm the authenticity of photos of Patel, with emails dating from roughly 2011 through 2022.
Some of the emails show routine personal and business exchanges, including travel planning and contacts built over years in government and private work. The release does not show access to FBI systems, but it does place a long record of private communications into public circulation all at once.
The hackers tied the release to recent U.S. action against their network.
“We decided to respond to this ridiculous show in a way that will be remembered forever.”
The Justice Department seized multiple domains tied to the same network earlier this month. The group registered the domain used in this breach the same day those seizures were announced.
Federal officials link the group to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. Officials warned Patel in 2024 that Iranian-linked hackers had already accessed parts of his personal communications as part of a broader effort targeting officials tied to President Donald Trump.
The emails predate Patel’s tenure as FBI director and stretch back more than a decade. The group held the material, waited for the takedown, and then put it out under his name.
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Comments
I’m thinking no one wants to see Patel in swim trunks.
Mr. Pool
@MrPool_QQ
🔻 THEY HACKED THE WRONG MAN.
Friday night. Iran’s cyber unit breached **FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email.** They published his photos. They thought they’d humiliate him.
They didn’t.
They triggered a protocol.
https://x.com/MrPool_QQ/status/2038230586863587758
“years of personal correspondence, travel records, family exchanges, and images … dating from roughly 2011 through 2022.”
All abetted by Google’s unholy lust to retain, mine, and sell your personal information forever, for advertising revenue. Gmail, the system that treats “delete this mail” as a suggestion (and never complies) unless you happen to know the double-secret Masonic handshake in Settings that will force your deleted mail to be actually DELETED. Otherwise (the default), all your deleted mail will be squirreled away in the AIl Mail mailbox with a little tag on it that says, “I’ve been deleted,” but perfectly readable by yourself or anyone else who can manage to access that mailbox.
Google’s motto used to be “Don’t be Evil,” Now, they ARE a major source of evil.
Kinda ironic since Patel testified the FBI is totes ok with purchasing all the data they can from 3rd party commercial sellers as an end run around warrant requirements. Congress is gonna have to bite the bullet and ensure that consumer data/info belongs to the consumer,.that any entity who collects, maintains the data can’t sell, transfer the data without explicit permission for each separate potential sale/transfer, that a warrant must be issued for any govt entity seeking the data and that within 6 months of issuing the warrant must be provided to the target of the warrant. Obviously that’s gonna create havoc with ‘free’ services business model where the cost to consumers is actually their data/info being sold to data brokers and advertisers. Tough cookies.
“Congress is gonna have to bite the bullet and ensure that consumer data/info belongs to the consumer,.that any entity who collects, maintains the data can’t sell, transfer the data without explicit permission for each separate potential sale/transfer”
“Obviously that’s gonna create havoc with ‘free’ services business model where the cost to consumers is actually their data/info being sold to data brokers and advertisers.”
And that’s why it will never happen.
Here’s a tip: you know you don’t have to participate in those “free” services where you (or, actually, your data) are the product and the provider’s actual customers are people willing to buy that data.
This has been well known for many years. Anyone who still thinks Google is a good steward of their data has apparently been living under a rock for the past decade or so.
When a company is willing to give you something for “free”, or even low cost relative to the expense of providing you the “something” you’re getting, you’re not the customer, you are the product.
If you want a service that protects your data, pay your provider for the service commensurate with its value. That way you are the customer and they have an incentive to serve your needs and desires rather than the data farming industry.
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