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FBI Office in Washington DC: "Urgent: Threat Actor in Systems"
Photo: Joshua Roberts / REUTERS
Unknown attackers succeeded in breaking into a server belonging to the US Federal Police FBI and sending a series of allegedly fraudulent e-mails from there.
On Saturday morning, tens of thousands of fake emails were sent in two batches, reported the IT security organization Spamhaus.
Some of the emails were sent on behalf of the FBI's Cyber Threat Detection Department and were headed, "Urgent: Threat Actor in Systems."
The recipients were warned that they had been the target of a "sophisticated" hacker attack by a well-known blackmailer gang.
The messages came from an address on an online portal that several government agencies use.
The FBI basically confirmed the problem on Sunday evening.
The affected server had no connection to the FBI's internal email system and the intruders could not access or change any data on the agency's servers, the federal police said.
Feud between security company and hackers as a background?
A system used by the FBI to send information and warnings to local security authorities was attacked.
The falsified e-mails sent were said to have been sent from the “ic.fbi.gov” domain.
As soon as the process became known, a software weakness was fixed.
The FBI said all partners were asked to ignore the fake emails.
The integrity of the FBI networks is guaranteed.
The authority initially did not provide any information about the possible perpetrators or the background to the hack.
The agency said that data was not leaked or compromised.
According to "Bleeping Computer", the fake e-mails could have had the aim of discrediting the well-known IT expert Vinny Troia.
Troia is the founder of the darknet analysis company Shadowbyte and is named as a dangerous hacker in the fake mails according to the magazine.
Troy and a community of hackers in the vicinity of a well-known cybercrime forum have therefore been involved in skirmishes for a long time.
hpp / dpa / afp / reuters
