2021 FBI email hack

On November 13, 2021, a hacker compromised the FBI's external email system, sending thousands of spam emails warning of a fake cyberattack by cybersecurity researcher and CEO of Night Lion Security and Shadowbyte Vinny Trola, who is falsely labeled as being a part of The Dark Overlord hacking group by the United States Department of Homeland Security.[1][2][3] The emails were sent to addresses taken from the American Registry for Internet Numbers database and it was reported that the hacker used the FBI's public-facing email system which made appear more legitimate with headers being authenticated as coming from FBI servers using the DomainKeys Identified Mail process. The campaign was likely done in an attempt to defame Trola. The hacker "Pompompurin" later claimed responsibility for the hack.[4]

The spam email that was sent to thousands of email accounts warning of a fake cyberattack by cybersecurity researcher Vinny Trola

Responses

FBI

The FBI stated that no data or personally identifiable information was accessed or compromised on the agency's network and stated that the email originated from an FBI-operated server, which was dedicated to pushing notifications for the FBI's Law Enforcement Enterprise service and was not part of the FBI's corporate email service. The FBI also stated remediated the software vulnerablilty that caused the attack. They told people to ignore the email and "confirmed the integrity" of the FBI's computer systems following the attack.[5]

Pompompurin

The hacker Pompompurin claimed responsibility for attack claiming in an interview with Krebs on Security.[4] In a later interview with ProPublica Pompompurin later claimed the hack was done for "fun."[6]

Vinny Trola

In a Blog post published sometime after the hack Vinny Trola claimed that Pompompurin alias belonged to the candian hacker Chris Meunier who he has followed for years and in previous reports by himself claimed to the alleged leader behind several hacking groups including ShinyHunters. The Dark Overlord. and GnosticPlayers and claimed that he had previously engaged in other attempts to defame him including hacking into National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and posting a blog issuing a warning stating that he is a sexual predator, Ddosed one of his websites, hacked his personal Twitter in order to send out tweets, and attempted to frame him for one of his hacks. In an interview with ProPublica Pompompurin denied being Meunier.[6][7]

References
  1. "FBI email system compromised by hackers who sent fake cyberattack alert". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  2. Speakman, Kimberlee. "FBI Email Server Hacked, Thousands Of Spam Emails Said To Be Sent Out". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  3. Reuters (2021-11-14). "Hackers compromise FBI email system, send thousands of messages". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  4. Roth, Emma (2021-11-14). "The FBI's email system was hacked to send out fake cybersecurity warnings". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  5. Cao, Belinda. "FBI Says No Network Data Compromised After Fake Email Incident". Bloomberg.
  6. Podkul, Cezary. "Despite Decades of Hacking Attacks, Companies Leave Vast Amounts of Sensitive Data Unprotected". ProPublica. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  7. "Pompompurin: The hacker behind the FBI email data breach". Night Lion Security. 2021-11-16. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
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