Iranian hackers crack private Gmail account of Trump’s FBI chief

A group of online attackers affiliated with Iran has managed to gain access to an email account used privately by FBI Director Kash Patel. The hackers published a backup containing emails and photos of the head of the US Federal Police.

Patel’s Gmail data from 2010-2019 leaked

The hacker group Handala Hack Team says it has carried out a successful attack on the email account of Kash Patel, who was appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by the US President after he took office again. The group describes its attack as part of retaliation for attacks on Iran by the US and Israel. According to a news agency report Reuters it is a Gmail account that Patel used privately. The US Department of Justice has now confirmed the successful attack by the Iranian hackers, but described the content they accessed as “historic” and pointed out that it did not contain any government information.

A gigabyte of data was stolen and published

The Handala group said on its website that the attack demonstrated that the FBI’s security measures were “nothing more than a joke.” A few weeks ago, the US Department of Justice took the group’s website offline after it claimed responsibility for a series of other attacks. The “Handala” group is suspected by Western security experts to be a kind of cover for hackers commissioned by the Iranian secret services. The group describes itself as “loyal followers” ​​of Supreme Leader Khamenei.

Through social media accounts, the attackers published a series of photos showing the FBI chief in various situations in his personal life. A 1.1 gigabyte archive containing documents, photos and emails from the hack is already being distributed on various channels. However, the majority of the content dates from 2010 to 2019. Google, as the operator of Gmail, has not yet commented on the incident.\