Hackers have taken a rather bold step by hacking into a computer system used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) New York Field Office. The cyberattack was first reported by CNN on Friday, and the FBI has now reported that the intrusion has been successfully contained and that it was an isolated incident, although the investigation into the scope and overall impact of the intrusion is ongoing.
CNN reported that the computer system that was affected was used as part of investigations into the posting of images of child sexual exploitation online. The FBI has not provided further details on the nature of the attack as it does not comment on ongoing investigations so the exact nature of the attack is unclear. The FBI has not released any information on the motivation behind the attack or the individuals responsible.
This is not the first time that hackers have targeted the FBI. In November 2021, a hacker used a legitimate email address that the FBI uses to communicate with state and local law enforcement offices and used the address in a malicious campaign that warned about a fake cyber threat involving the threat actor Vinny Troia, who has links to The Dark Overlord threat group.
The FBI failed to detect the compromised mailbox in time to prevent thousands of emails from being sent. Those spam emails reportedly reached more than 100,000 inboxes, although it is probable that a great many more messages were sent in that campaign.
The FBI later reported that a software vulnerability was exploited that has since been fixed and was due to the system being misconfigured which allowed the email system to be hijacked. The perpetrator has not been caught and the FBI has not publicly released the names of any suspects.
