FBI investigates unauthorized activity affecting jobs site; hackers claim personnel data theft

The FBI told Reuters on September 22 that it was aware of claims involving unauthorized activity affecting FBIjobs.gov and was investigating. The recruitment site and Special Agent Applicant Portal displayed outage notices that day; these are the portions currently confirmed by the agency.

In a dark-web statement and an online exchange with Reuters, ShinyHunters claimed it obtained data on nearly all FBI agents as well as job applicants and offered a sample covering roughly 5,000 people. The FBI has not confirmed that number or scope, and N Globe does not present the group's overall claim as established fact.

Reuters said the sample appeared to include names, home addresses, Social Security numbers, assignments and, in some cases, family names. The news agency partially checked several details for at least 10 people, including FBI Director Kash Patel, against credit records and previously breached data. It could not establish whether the material came from internal FBI systems, the recruitment platform or older breach collections.

Still unknown are the access route, actual number of people affected, age of the records and whether the FBI will notify individuals. Readers should not download, redistribute or use suspected leaked personal data. The FBI directs people who receive impersonation scams seeking wires, cryptocurrency, gift cards or prepaid cards to report them through IC3.

Verification status: developing (the FBI investigation and site disruption are confirmed; the hackers' claims about source and scale are not independently confirmed); news value: A; originRegion: United States; primary section: Security; relatedRegions: worldwide; source publication and report date: September 22, 2026.