Iranian Hackers Claim Breach Of Fbi Director Kash Patel’s Personal Email Account

A hacking group backed by nan Iranian authorities dubbed “Handala” said connected Friday that it has breached nan individual email relationship of FBI head Kash Patel. 

In a station connected its website, Handala included respective pictures of a visibly younger Patel, arsenic good arsenic a nexus to a cache of files that look to travel from Patel’s individual Gmail account. 

TechCrunch confirmed that astatine slightest immoderate of nan emails leaked by Handala were from Patel’s alleged Gmail relationship by verifying accusation contained wrong nan connection headers. These connection headers incorporate accusation from nan sender that helps email transportation systems corroborate that an email is genuine and not a spoof.

We utilized a instrumentality to verify respective emails sent by Patel from his Gmail account, which contained cryptographic signatures that matched their email messages. These signatures powerfully propose that nan emails we checked are authentic. In immoderate cases, Patel appears to person sent emails from his FBI email reside to his Gmail account. TechCrunch recovered that nan emails sent from Patel’s FBI relationship besides appeared to beryllium authentic.

The FBI and Justice Department did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.

Reuters, which first reported nan email leaks, said a Justice Department charismatic confirmed nan breach. 

TechCrunch sent messages seeking confirmation to Patel’s Gmail email reside revealed by nan hackers, arsenic good arsenic a matter connection to a cellphone number contained successful a resume allegedly belonging to Patel. We did not instantly perceive back.

Since nan U.S.-Israeli warfare against Iran started successful February, Iran-linked Handala has ramped up its hacks, astir notably claiming work for a destructive attack against aesculapian tech elephantine Stryker that wiped tens of thousands of worker devices. The hackers person besides published nan individual specifications of respective group who are allegedly portion of nan Israeli Defense Forces and section defense contractors.

Following nan Stryker hack, the FBI seized a fistful of Handala websites, which quickly came backmost online connected caller domains. U.S. prosecutors person formally accused nan Iranian ministry of intelligence and information (MOIS) of operating nan Handala group. 

The hackers did not respond to TechCrunch’s petition for remark sent to a chat relationship that nan hackers publicize connected their website, arsenic good arsenic an email reside owned by nan group that was published by nan Justice Department.

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