The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Saturday that hackers had compromised its external email system, then sent out warnings of fake cyberattacks.
The hackers accessed an unclassified server used by FBI personnel to communicate outside of the organization. The hackers then used the compromised server to send the fraudulent emails to possibly thousands of individuals and companies, according to the Washington Post.
“The impacted hardware was taken offline quickly upon discovery of the issue,” the FBI said in a statement. “We continue to encourage the public to be cautious of unknown senders and urge you to report suspicious activity to ic3.gov or cisa.gov.”
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The emails sent by the hackers contained no harmful attachments, potentially signaling that the hackers did not have a serious plan to maliciously exploit it. The cyberattack alerts could have simply been a means for the hackers to “get some street cred to tout on underground forums,” a former FBI agent told the outlet.
Spamhaus, an international threat intelligence organization, posted a picture of the email sent by the hackers on social media. Referenced in the email is an international hacker group called the Dark Overlord, which allegedly steals data and demands hefty ransoms for its return.
In 2017, the group allegedly stole students’ records in several U.S. states and leaked 10 episodes of the Netflix show Orange is the New Black, the outlet reported.
These emails look like this:
Sending IP: 153.31.119.142 (https://t.co/En06mMbR88)
From: [email protected]
Subject: Urgent: Threat actor in systems pic.twitter.com/NuojpnWNLh— Spamhaus (@spamhaus) November 13, 2021
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The FBI did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
