Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email [View all]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - Iran-linked ​hackers have publicly claimed the breach of FBI ‌Director Kash Patel's personal inbox, publishing photographs of the director and other documents to the internet.

On their website, the hacker ​group Handala Hack Team said Patel "will now find ​his name among the list of successfully hacked ⁠victims." A Justice Department official confirmed that Patel's email had ​been breached and said the material published online appeared authentic.

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Handala, which calls itself ​a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers, is considered by ​Western researchers to be one of several personas used by Iranian ‌government ⁠cyberintelligence units. Handala recently claimed the hack of Michigan-based medical devices and services provider Stryker on March 11, claiming to have deleted a massive trove of company ​data.

Reuters was not ​able to ⁠independently authenticate the Patel emails, but the personal Gmail address that Handala claims to have ​broken into matches the address linked to ​Patel in ⁠previous data breaches preserved by the dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs. A sample of the material uploaded by ⁠the ​hackers and reviewed by Reuters ​appears to show a mix of personal and work correspondence dating between ​2010 and 2019.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/iran-linked-hackers-claim-breach-of-fbi-directors-personal-email-doj-official-2026-03-27/