Iran-linked | Pakistan

Iran-linked hackers on Friday claimed they had accessed FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email 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”. The hackers published a series of personal photographs of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique convertible, and making a face while taking a picture of himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum. A Justice Department official confirmed that Patel’s email had been breached and said the material published online appeared authentic. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The hackers did not immediately respond to messages. 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 Michig...

Iran-linked hackers have threatened to disclose more emails stolen from US President Donald Trump’s circle, after distributing a prior batch to the media ahead of the 2024 US election. In online chats with Reuters on Sunday and Monday, the hackers, who go by the pseudonym Robert, said they had roughly 100 gigabytes of emails from the accounts of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan, Trump adviser Roger Stone and porn star-turned-Trump antagonist Stormy Daniels. Robert raised the possibility of selling the material but otherwise did not provide details of their plans. The hackers did not describe the content of the emails. US Attorney General Pam Bondi described the intrusion as “an unconscionable cyber-attack”. The White House and the FBI responded with a statement from FBI Director Kash Patel, who said: “Anyone associated with any kind of breach of national security will be fully investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” “This so-called cyber ‘attack’ is ...