Iran-linked hackers claim breach of FBI director Kash Patel's personal email

Iran-linked hackers have publicly claimed the breach of FBI Director Kash Patel's personal inbox, publishing photographs of the director and other documents to ‌the internet. On ⁠their ⁠website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said Patel "will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims." A Justice Department official confirmed that Patel's email had been breached and said the material published online appeared authentic.

The FBI did not immediately ⁠respond to ‌a request for comment. The hackers did not immediately respond to messages.

Handala, which calls ⁠itself a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers, is considered by Western researchers to be one of several personas used by Iranian government cyberintelligence units. Handala recently claimed the hack of Michigan-based medical devices and services provider Stryker on March 11, claiming to have deleted a massive trove of company ‌data. Reuters was not able to independently authenticate the Patel emails, but the personal Gmail address that Handala claims ⁠to have broken into matches the address linked to Patel in previous data breaches preserved by the dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs. A sample of the material uploaded by the hackers and reviewed by Reuters appears to show a mix of personal and work correspondence dating between 2010 and 2019.