ShinyHunters website goes offline after FBI deadline expires

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September 30, 2026 5:57 PM EDT

FILE PHOTO: U.S. flags flutter in the wind over the entrance to the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 16, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

By AJ Vicens

Sept 30 (Reuters) - The ‌website used by ​ShinyHunters, ​the group that claimed responsibility for a recent hack of thousands of FBI agents' personal and sensitive data, went offline on Wednesday, a ‌day after the group's deadline for the FBI to retract or ⁠modify a statement about the group's tactics and track record expired.

• ShinyHunters, a prolific cyber extortion group ‌with a long record of ‌targeting major corporations around the world, told Reuters and other news organizations on September 22 that it had stolen data "on almost ALL FBI Agents, and individuals ​who filed an application with the FBI for a job."

• A Reuters analysis of a sample of the data shared by the hackers subsequently revealed that ⁠the data contained extensive personally identifiable information, sensitive job role information, and psychiatric and medical information.

• Reuters could ​not determine why the site was offline. ShinyHunters could not be reached for comment.

• The hackers said they targeted the FBI ​in response to a May 2026 FBI advisory ‌about the group that the hackers felt misrepresented their prior actions. They gave the FBI a week to either "correct or simply ⁠REMOVE" the advisory.

• The advisory remains online. ShinyHunters later said it had no intention of publishing the data it stole and that it accomplished its goals.

• The FBI said on September 23 ⁠that it was "actively and aggressively investigating" the breach. The agency declined to comment on Wednesday ​on whether it had taken any actions to force the hackers' site offline. Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division, urged the hackers in a video published on the ‌agency's website on September 29 to get in touch with the FBI "while the choice is still yours."

• Dutch police announced this ‌week that on September 15 they had arrested a Dutch man in connection with an ⁠investigation into ShinyHunters. The hacking ‌group told Reuters the man ​had "no association" with them and mocked the Dutch police as "incompetent."

(Reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit and Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by ‌Bill Berkrot)


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