FBI's email system compromised; Hackers warn of cyber threat

Hackers compromised the Federal Bureau of Investigation's outer email strategy connected Saturday.

The hackers sent retired tens of thousands of emails from an FBI email relationship informing astir a imaginable cyberattack, according to the Spamhaus Project, which tracks spam and related cyber threats. The FBI said it, on with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is "aware of the incidental this greeting involving fake emails from an @ic.fbi.gov email account."

"This is an ongoing situation, and we are not capable to supply immoderate further accusation astatine this time," the FBI said successful a statement.

The FBI has aggregate email systems, and the 1 that appears to person been hacked connected Saturday is simply a public-facing 1 that agents and employees tin usage to email with the public, according to Austin Berglas, caput of nonrecreational services astatine the cybersecurity institution BlueVoyant. There's a abstracted email strategy agents are required to usage erstwhile transmitting classified information, helium said.

"This is not the classified strategy that was compromised," said Berglas, who is besides a erstwhile adjunct peculiar cause successful complaint of the FBI's New York bureau cyber branch. "This is an externally facing relationship that is utilized to stock and pass unclassified information."

The attacks started astatine midnight Saturday successful New York with a consequent run opening astatine 2 a.m., according to Spamhaus. The nonprofit said it estimates the spam messages yet reached astatine slightest 100,000 mailboxes.

The emails came with the taxable line: "Urgent: menace histrion successful systems." The connection was signed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and warned recipients that the menace histrion appeared to beryllium cybersecurity adept Vinny Troia, who past twelvemonth penned an probe of the hacking radical The Dark Overlord.

There was nary malware attached to the emails, according to Spamhaus. The radical speculated that the hackers could person been attempting to smear Troia oregon were staging a nuisance onslaught to flood the FBI with calls.

Troia didn't respond to a petition for comment. The FBI urged consumers to beryllium cautious and study immoderate suspicious activity.

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