GoKawiilIran-linked hackers successfully broke into FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email, the Department of Justice confirmed to Reuters on Friday.
Reuters could not authenticate the leaked emails themselves but noted that the Gmail address matched an email account “linked to Patel in previous data breaches preserved by the dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs.” The DOJ suggested the emails appeared to be authentic.
On their website, the Handala Hack Team boasted that Patel “will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims.” The hacker group taunted Patel by sharing photos of him sniffing cigars and holding up a jug of rum, along with other documents that Reuters reported were from 2010 to 2019.
“Soon you will realize that the FBI’s security was nothing more than a joke,” the group posted, as documented in screenshots from the website shared widely on X.
The hack came after the DOJ disrupted some of the hacker group’s websites earlier this month. In a press release, Patel threatened to “hunt” down the group, which Reuters reported “calls itself a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers.” After detailing four attacks this month that the group had taken credit for, Patel offered rewards of up to $10 million for information on its members.
“Iran thought they could hide behind fake websites and keyboard threats to terrorize Americans and silence dissidents,” Patel said. “We took down four of their operation’s pillars and we’re not done. This FBI will hunt down every actor behind these cowardly death threats and cyberattacks and will bring the full force of American law enforcement down on them.”