Month: October 2026

The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building is seen on Sept. 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption Samuel Corum/Getty Images

The FBI is aware of a cyber-criminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the fbijobs.gov portal and alleged impact to FBI employee personally identifiable information (PII).

A ransomware gang essentially targeted the FBI and the mafia this week. This is not a winning strategy. This ransomware gang—Shiny Hunters—is made up of many teenagers (or those who act like teenagers) who have a pathological need to be right, even when they are wrong. This helps explain why they often act so recklessly. And that recklessness escalated even further this week as Shiny sought to retaliate against two high-profile targets for perceived grievances. First, over the weekend, the gang reportedly took over longstanding ransomware gang Cl0P’s website and threatened to leak data unless the Cl0P gave Shiny ALL of its proceeds from a Cl0P campaign last fall…tens of millions of dollars. Shiny claims they found the zero day vulnerability used in CL0P’s campaign first, and therefore should receive all ransoms. Then yesterday, Shiny reportedly defaced the FBIJobs website and claimed to have stolen information about all FBI personnel. From what I have seen, some of the claims appears accurate while a few others feel off. Shiny is actually not demanding money here. Instead, the gang is demanding that the FBI retract details from its recent public advisory that Shiny claims are inaccurate. (Give me a break 🙄) When I first heard about Shiny attacking Cl0P, it struck me as incredibly foolish. Cl0P has been around longer than almost any other ransomware gang. Unlike most other cyber criminal groups, they are disciplined, focused on less frequent/bigger campaigns, and keep all their work in house and closed to outsiders. Their campaigns never felt like a first time organized crime rodeo. This behavior plus the overall deep overlaps between many ransomware gangs and Russian government and organized crime has always made me suspect CL0P actors came from and/or are still connected to Russian organized crime. That’s why I make the comparison to attacking the cyber equivalent of the mafia. So it felt even crazier to me when news started breaking about Shiny also attempting to retaliate days later against the FBI. Ransomware groups are largely successful because they operate like businesses. Targeting other criminal groups or law enforcement — especially in ways intended to publicly shame — demonstrates a lack of discipline that historically has led to takedowns, takeovers or defections. RIP the Shiny Hunters brand? I guess we will see. But when any threat actor targets the FBI directly, they should expect that the FBI is going to marshal additional resources to bring them more quickly to justice. That is, if other criminal gangs don’t get to them first. #ThreatIntelligence #Ransomware #Cybersecurity #CyberIntelligence

We asked Democratic leaders what they’re doing to prevent the president’s Orwellian attacks on political speech. Their answers were not heartening.

In a survey of every Democratic governor in America, not a single state leader told The New Republic that they would move to dismantle state and local police participation in the FBI task forces carrying out investigations into political speech and organizing. Of 24 governors contacted, only two gav

The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building is seen on Sept. 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption Samuel Corum/Getty Images

The FBI is aware of a cyber-criminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the fbijobs.gov portal and alleged impact to FBI employee personally identifiable information (PII).

A ransomware gang essentially targeted the FBI and the mafia this week. This is not a winning strategy. This ransomware gang—Shiny Hunters—is made up of many teenagers (or those who act like teenagers) who have a pathological need to be right, even when they are wrong. This helps explain why they often act so recklessly. And that recklessness escalated even further this week as Shiny sought to retaliate against two high-profile targets for perceived grievances. First, over the weekend, the gang reportedly took over longstanding ransomware gang Cl0P’s website and threatened to leak data unless the Cl0P gave Shiny ALL of its proceeds from a Cl0P campaign last fall…tens of millions of dollars. Shiny claims they found the zero day vulnerability used in CL0P’s campaign first, and therefore should receive all ransoms. Then yesterday, Shiny reportedly defaced the FBIJobs website and claimed to have stolen information about all FBI personnel. From what I have seen, some of the claims appears accurate while a few others feel off. Shiny is actually not demanding money here. Instead, the gang is demanding that the FBI retract details from its recent public advisory that Shiny claims are inaccurate. (Give me a break 🙄) When I first heard about Shiny attacking Cl0P, it struck me as incredibly foolish. Cl0P has been around longer than almost any other ransomware gang. Unlike most other cyber criminal groups, they are disciplined, focused on less frequent/bigger campaigns, and keep all their work in house and closed to outsiders. Their campaigns never felt like a first time organized crime rodeo. This behavior plus the overall deep overlaps between many ransomware gangs and Russian government and organized crime has always made me suspect CL0P actors came from and/or are still connected to Russian organized crime. That’s why I make the comparison to attacking the cyber equivalent of the mafia. So it felt even crazier to me when news started breaking about Shiny also attempting to retaliate days later against the FBI. Ransomware groups are largely successful because they operate like businesses. Targeting other criminal groups or law enforcement — especially in ways intended to publicly shame — demonstrates a lack of discipline that historically has led to takedowns, takeovers or defections. RIP the Shiny Hunters brand? I guess we will see. But when any threat actor targets the FBI directly, they should expect that the FBI is going to marshal additional resources to bring them more quickly to justice. That is, if other criminal gangs don’t get to them first. #ThreatIntelligence #Ransomware #Cybersecurity #CyberIntelligence

We asked Democratic leaders what they’re doing to prevent the president’s Orwellian attacks on political speech. Their answers were not heartening.

In a survey of every Democratic governor in America, not a single state leader told The New Republic that they would move to dismantle state and local police participation in the FBI task forces carrying out investigations into political speech and organizing. Of 24 governors contacted, only two gav

The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building is seen on Sept. 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption Samuel Corum/Getty Images

The FBI is aware of a cyber-criminal enterprise group claiming a compromise of the fbijobs.gov portal and alleged impact to FBI employee personally identifiable information (PII).

A ransomware gang essentially targeted the FBI and the mafia this week. This is not a winning strategy. This ransomware gang—Shiny Hunters—is made up of many teenagers (or those who act like teenagers) who have a pathological need to be right, even when they are wrong. This helps explain why they often act so recklessly. And that recklessness escalated even further this week as Shiny sought to retaliate against two high-profile targets for perceived grievances. First, over the weekend, the gang reportedly took over longstanding ransomware gang Cl0P’s website and threatened to leak data unless the Cl0P gave Shiny ALL of its proceeds from a Cl0P campaign last fall…tens of millions of dollars. Shiny claims they found the zero day vulnerability used in CL0P’s campaign first, and therefore should receive all ransoms. Then yesterday, Shiny reportedly defaced the FBIJobs website and claimed to have stolen information about all FBI personnel. From what I have seen, some of the claims appears accurate while a few others feel off. Shiny is actually not demanding money here. Instead, the gang is demanding that the FBI retract details from its recent public advisory that Shiny claims are inaccurate. (Give me a break 🙄) When I first heard about Shiny attacking Cl0P, it struck me as incredibly foolish. Cl0P has been around longer than almost any other ransomware gang. Unlike most other cyber criminal groups, they are disciplined, focused on less frequent/bigger campaigns, and keep all their work in house and closed to outsiders. Their campaigns never felt like a first time organized crime rodeo. This behavior plus the overall deep overlaps between many ransomware gangs and Russian government and organized crime has always made me suspect CL0P actors came from and/or are still connected to Russian organized crime. That’s why I make the comparison to attacking the cyber equivalent of the mafia. So it felt even crazier to me when news started breaking about Shiny also attempting to retaliate days later against the FBI. Ransomware groups are largely successful because they operate like businesses. Targeting other criminal groups or law enforcement — especially in ways intended to publicly shame — demonstrates a lack of discipline that historically has led to takedowns, takeovers or defections. RIP the Shiny Hunters brand? I guess we will see. But when any threat actor targets the FBI directly, they should expect that the FBI is going to marshal additional resources to bring them more quickly to justice. That is, if other criminal gangs don’t get to them first. #ThreatIntelligence #Ransomware #Cybersecurity #CyberIntelligence

We asked Democratic leaders what they’re doing to prevent the president’s Orwellian attacks on political speech. Their answers were not heartening.

In a survey of every Democratic governor in America, not a single state leader told The New Republic that they would move to dismantle state and local police participation in the FBI task forces carrying out investigations into political speech and organizing. Of 24 governors contacted, only two gav