2021 FBI email hack

On November 13, 2021, a hacker compromised the FBI's external email system, sending thousands of spam emails warning of a fake cyberattack by cybersecurity researcher and CEO of Night Lion Security and Shadowbyte Vinny Troia, who is falsely labeled in the emails as being a part of The Dark Overlord hacking group by the United States Department of Homeland Security.[1][2][3] The emails were sent to addresses taken from the American Registry for Internet Numbers database and it was reported that the hacker used the FBI's public-facing email system which made the emails appear legitimate. The campaign was likely done in an attempt to defame Troia. The hacker "Pompompurin" later claimed responsibility for the hack.[4]

The spam email that was sent to thousands of email accounts warning of a fake cyberattack by cybersecurity researcher Vinny Troia

Responses

FBI

The FBI stated that they remediated the software vulnerablilty that caused the attack. They told people to ignore the email and "confirmed the integrity" of the FBI's computer systems following the attack.[5]

Pompompurin

The hacker Pompompurin claimed responsibility for attack claiming in an interview with Krebs on Security.[4] In a later interview with ProPublica Pompompurin later claimed the hack was done for "fun."[6]

Vinny Troia

In a blog post, Vinny Troia claimed that Pompompurin alias belonged to the Canadian hacker Chris Meunier. In an interview with ProPublica, Pompompurin denied being Meunier.[6][7]

References
  1. "FBI email system compromised by hackers who sent fake cyberattack alert". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  2. Speakman, Kimberlee. "FBI Email Server Hacked, Thousands Of Spam Emails Said To Be Sent Out". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  3. "Hackers compromise FBI email system, send thousands of messages". Reuters. 2021-11-14. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  4. Roth, Emma (2021-11-14). "The FBI's email system was hacked to send out fake cybersecurity warnings". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  5. Cao, Belinda. "FBI Says No Network Data Compromised After Fake Email Incident". Bloomberg.
  6. Podkul, Cezary. "Despite Decades of Hacking Attacks, Companies Leave Vast Amounts of Sensitive Data Unprotected". ProPublica. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  7. "Pompompurin: The hacker behind the FBI email data breach". Night Lion Security. 2021-11-16. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.