Wow, what an odd story. It really sounds like the attacker did not at all realize what they'd actually managed to access. How do you end up accidentally hacking the FBI?
>The person familiar with the breach said the intrusion was carried out by a foreign hacker who did not appear to realize they had penetrated a law enforcement server. The hacker expressed disgust at the presence of child abuse images on the device and left a message threatening to turn its owner over to the FBI, the person said.
>The source said bureau officials defused the situation by convincing the hacker that they actually were the FBI, in part by having the hacker join a video chat where they flashed their law enforcement credentials in front of a web camera.
trevwilson•1h ago
From the original Reuters article (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/foreign-hacker-2023-comprom...):
>The person familiar with the breach said the intrusion was carried out by a foreign hacker who did not appear to realize they had penetrated a law enforcement server. The hacker expressed disgust at the presence of child abuse images on the device and left a message threatening to turn its owner over to the FBI, the person said.
>The source said bureau officials defused the situation by convincing the hacker that they actually were the FBI, in part by having the hacker join a video chat where they flashed their law enforcement credentials in front of a web camera.