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PSA - READ THIS NOW

Claimed by Shinyhunters · listed 2 hours ago

Today
Age
since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

  1. ListedSep 22, 2026
  2. Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group
Shinyhunters
Status
Data leaked
Listed on leak site
Sep 22, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

This is not a traditional ransomware victim disclosure. The 'victim' is the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a U.S. federal law enforcement agency. The post is a public statement/counter-narrative by the Shinyhunters group responding to an FBI FLASH report that criticized their operational methods.

Attack summary

Severity: critical — Claimed compromise of U.S. federal law enforcement agency systems and alleged access to PII of FBI personnel and applicants at scale represents a critical national security and law enforcement integrity issue, regardless of the group's framing.

Shinyhunters claims to have compromised FBI systems including Criminal Justice (CJ), HR, and Medlink services. They assert they hold sensitive data on FBI agents and job applicants. The group denies exaggerated claims of access, harassment tactics, and sextortion allegations made in an FBI FLASH report, framing the disclosure as a First Amendment exercise and reputation defense rather than extortion.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post
  • FBI agent personnel records
  • FBI job applicant data
  • Criminal Justice (CJ) system data
  • HR records
  • Medlink service data

What the group claims

Dear Assistant Director Brett Leatherman of the FBI Cyber Division & Director Kash Patel of the FBI, During Quarter Two of this year the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made substantial false allegations regarding our organisation in a FLASH report. We have been severely offended. We were very disappointed to see an agency of your standing would resort to such circulation of disinformation in an attempt to "disrupt" our operations, an effort that ultimately proved unsuccessful. For us to properly address and correct these unfounded allegations, we were compelled to adopt a forceful and assertive posture to ensure our response was fully acknowledged. This PSA today does just that. Our PSA today works to address these allegations and correct them. We have compromised the FBI. We hold very sensitive data on almost ALL FBI Agents and individuals who filed an application with the FBI for a job. Whether it be a Special Agent or any other role within your agency. The following FBI services were compromised: Criminal Justice (CJ), HR, Medlink, and more. We are willing to allow you a time of 1 week to correct or simply REMOVE the 2026 Quarter 2 FLASH report on us that includes several FALSE allegations: - "Threat actors often use their real or exaggerated claims of access to sensitive or personal information to prompt payment from victims. " - "To exert pressure on victims[1], SH actors commonly use harassment strategies, sending threatening text messages and phone calls to victims and their family members, and in some cases, swatting" - " Threat actors may falsely claim to have sensitive or compromising information, including embarrassing photographs or videos of victims, which frequently do not exist." We wish to state unequivocally our threats and claims are very real. Not exaggerated and never a bluff. This PSA today is living evidence of that. We wish to state unequivocally we have NEVER conducted swatting attacks against corporate victims personnel nor have we ever texted victims personnel family members any threats. We wish to state unequivocally we have NEVER claimed to have sensitive or compromising information, including embarrassing photographs and videos of victims. WE ARE NOT SEXTORTIONISTS . Finally, we wish to STATE UNEQUIVOCALLY we are NOT apart of "The Com". We have NEVER been apart of "The Com". "The Com" is a propaganda started by the Information Security Industry which has brainwashed past FBI and DOJ officials into formalising this nonsense. As a big believer and supporter of the U.S. Constitution - we are exercising the First Amendment and actively combating disinformation. This is not a ransom, coercion, or extortion. Your federal policies do not apply here. This PSA is NOT financially motivated. We recognise that certain statements within your FLASH report appear to stem from biased public reporting by certain journalists who have previously and intentionally propagated false narratives about our organisation in an attempt to "disrupt" our operations and hinder clients trust in our organisation hoping nobody pays us. Should those certain journalists and you know very well who you are, continue these unwarranted attacks and defamatory statements, we will be forced to respond in a civil manner with a commensurate and forceful defence of our reputation. As any human being would do. We welcome any and all journalists to inquire us at [email protected] to hear our side of the story. Make the right decision, don't be the next headline. Thank you for your attention to this matter. -SH | Updated: 23 Sep 2026

Source

Indexed 2 hours ago

This page surfaces a public ransomware disclosure indexed by Darkfield. Original posts come from the operator's own leak site; we cross-check against ransomware.live, RansomLook and RansomWatch where applicable. Share this URL freely.

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Disclosure context

About shinyhunters

Based on the limited publicly available information, shinyhunters appears to be a recently emerged ransomware group first observed in October 2025, primarily motivated by financial gain through extortion activities targeting organizations across multiple sectors. The group's origin and potential affiliations remain unclear due to their recent emergence, and there is insufficient public documentation to determine whether they operate as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model or as an independent entity. Their attack methodology and specific technical capabilities have not been extensively documented by major threat intelligence firms, though their targeting pattern suggests a broad opportunistic approach rather than sector-specific specialization. The group has reportedly victimized approximately 77 organizations, with primary targeting focused on the United States, France, Japan, Germany, and Australia, showing particular interest in consumer services, technology, financial services, transportation and logistics, and education sectors. Given the group's very recent emergence in late 2025, there are no widely reported major campaigns or high-profile incidents documented by established security research organizations, and no known law enforcement actions have been publicly reported against this group. The current operational status of shinyhunters remains active based on available reporting, though comprehensive threat intelligence profiles from major security firms like Mandiant, CrowdStrike, or government agencies have not yet been published due to the group's recent appearance in the threat landscape. The group has been linked to 168 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on October 3, 2025; most recent post September 22, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

  • September 22, 2026PSA - READ THIS NOW listed by shinyhunters on the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by shinyhunters

shinyhunters has been linked to 168 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full shinyhunters dossier →

If your organisation is affected

A listing by shinyhunters means PSA - READ THIS NOW appeared on a ransomware extortion site and data attributed to it has been published. If this is your organisation, or a supplier you depend on, the priority is to confirm the intrusion and contain it before the window to act closes.

  • Engage your incident-response team and preserve forensic evidence before remediating — do not wipe affected systems first.
  • Force a password reset and revoke active sessions for exposed accounts; rotate any credentials, API keys or certificates that may have been in the stolen data.
  • Assess regulatory notification duties (GDPR, NIS2, sector regulators) — many carry a 72-hour reporting clock from awareness.
  • Monitor for the data appearing on shinyhunters's leak site and across paste and breach channels, and brief downstream partners who may be exposed through you.

How we know this. Darkfield monitors public ransomware leak sites continuously, archiving every new disclosure and the data later released against the victim. Each entry on this page is sourced from the operator's own publication and cross-checked against complementary OSINT feeds (RansomLook, ransomware.live, RansomWatch). We do not collect or host stolen data — only the metadata, timestamps and screenshots needed to make the public disclosure searchable and accountable. Records here are corrected when the original post is edited, retracted, or merged with another disclosure.