FBI’s Top Cyber Guy Warns ShinyHunters Crew That They Better Watch Their Backs
The FBI's Cyber Division issued a public warning to the ShinyHunters hacking group following a significant data breach that exposed sensitive information on thousands of officials. FBI Assistant Director Brett Leatherman highlighted the recent arrest of an alleged ShinyHunters leader by Dutch authorities to demonstrate the agency's growing intelligence on the group. The incident has caused internal embarrassment and security concerns within the FBI, particularly regarding the potential exposure of undercover agents and the sophistication of the attackers.
- ▪FBI Assistant Director Brett Leatherman warned ShinyHunters that the agency is learning more about them and urged them to surrender.
- ▪The Dutch High-Tech Crime Unit arrested an alleged leader of ShinyHunters, who was found with a laptop containing data on planned murders.
- ▪ShinyHunters stole a large trove of data from FBI servers, including personal details of thousands of officials and information on sensitive roles.
- ▪Internal FBI memos indicate the agency is operating under the premise that ShinyHunters has complete data on its employees.
- ▪ShinyHunters denied the connection to the arrested Dutch suspect and claimed they would not publish the stolen data.
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| Original publisher | Gizmodo |
| Canonical URL | https://gizmodo.com/fbis-top-cyber-guy-warns-shinyhunters-crew-that-they-better-watch-their-backs-2000819168 |
| Publication time | Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:50:27 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-30T00:52:34.102Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-30T00:52:34.102Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
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| Cluster | 9lysl27LjnXu · 1 stories |
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| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
The best way to show you’re not owned is, of course, posting. So the FBI has taken it up a notch after hackers stole a huge trove of data from its servers in a breach last week, including personal details on thousands of FBI officials. The assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, Brett Leatherman, starred in a video on the FBI’s X feed on Tuesday that warned ShinyHunters members the longer they operate, the more the FBI learns about them. Leatherman stated the Dutch High-Tech Crime Unit had arrested “one of the alleged leaders of ShinyHunters,” adding that under the FBI’s cyber strategy, the jurisdiction “with the strongest authority and access leads” such raids and takedowns.
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