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Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

reuters.com

81–90 of 591 posts

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#81
post #7

Forget the Iran attribution for a second. The FBI director's personal email was already in leaked credential databases from prior breaches.

Every now and then something happens that makes me wonder how the fuck America is number one, this being one of them.

America had the advantage of getting through WW2 relatively unscathed with lots of resources and intact infrastructure that it used to leverage against the reconstruction of Europe, Japan and the USSR and entrench its cultural and economic hegemony. Also the US essentially colonized the West with nuclear weapons under the guise of "Pax Americana" and making the dollar the reserve currency.

That's really it. Not moral superiority, not technical ingenuity, not the indomitable American spirit. Just imperialist opportunism.

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#82
post #36

A couple of DOGE teenagers were able to casually walk in and steal the entire country's social security and healthcare data (and probably more), and we were cheering them on. There is still no accountability, and it has probably already been sold to the highest bidder. So this would be the least surprising thing in the world.

[flagged]

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#83
post #77
post #65

I really want to know how they did it.. was it some terrible password? He doesn't strike me as the kinda person even using a local password manager; like keepass. Somebody needs to find this out. I doubt it was gmail support... surely it could not be via his phone sim, and if he didn't have two factor on; That would be so funny. I'm tempted to check out the dark web or the telegram, but i'd rather not do either of th…

I too am very curious about this. Even if his password was exposed and he didn’t have 2-factor auth, doesn’t Google by default ask for confirmation — e.g. texting a number or backup email associated with the account — when seeing an unrecognized device? Maybe he didn’t have any alt contact methods associated with his account? (which might not be that unusual, he’s old enough to have opened a gmail account upon launch…

You are probably right... I tend to change my password semi often. It's always a super complex impossible to remember string - and always keep an eye on the account activity.

Not to mention ; you would assume he should have more than one device linked to the account and then that adds another layer, since Google will ask you " is this you trying to logon ". If you are suggesting it was exposed and he didn't immediately randomise all his passwords.. WORDS FAIL ME

It's all security 101 the irony is immense...

if the US government / FBI need someone to give some talks on how to do security ...

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is actually the opposite of the correct conclusion—just look how influential Patreus cheating on his wife was ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petraeus_scandal ). I seriously doubt that Kash Patel doesn't have a bunch of skeletons to dust off and show the world; the man is a weirdo (much like the rest of the administration). EDIT: I actually misread the comment; I think we're likely in agreement. My bad.

I'd like to chime in and say that that Kash Patel, while completely unprofessional and incompetent, is way less of a weirdo than the rest of the administration. His scandals are all about shirking job responsibilities to party and sightsee. That's not great from the FBI director but its way more normal than the rest of them.

So you mean to point out that the sitting FBI director is a bro's bro.

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#85
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every now and then something happens that makes me wonder how the fuck America is number one, this being one of them.

America had the advantage of getting through WW2 relatively unscathed with lots of resources and intact infrastructure that it used to leverage against the reconstruction of Europe, Japan and the USSR and entrench its cultural and economic hegemony. Also the US essentially colonized the West with nuclear weapons under the guise of "Pax Americana" and making the dollar the reserve currency. That's really it. Not moral…

[deleted]

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#86
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> his personal email should be pretty uninteresting except for stuff like HIPAA, amazon purchases, communications with friends / family. (good for HUMINT) But other than that, there shouldn't be anything in there which should make the news. It'll be interesting to see whether or not that bears out. Aren't these the same people who apparently used Signal with a journalist in the chat, and had military conversations in…

Signal started being used during the Biden administration, the issue was how they were managing contacts which could be added to groups. They weren't carefully vetting access and a journalist with the same name as another military guy was added to the group by accident.

Source?

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacked

Leaked

yeah it’s totally plausible that Google would risk the reputation and legal status of its global multi-trillion empire to dunk on one of the handful of people who have the near-unilateral authority to dismantle them

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#88
post #65

I really want to know how they did it.. was it some terrible password? He doesn't strike me as the kinda person even using a local password manager; like keepass. Somebody needs to find this out. I doubt it was gmail support... surely it could not be via his phone sim, and if he didn't have two factor on; That would be so funny. I'm tempted to check out the dark web or the telegram, but i'd rather not do either of th…

[deleted]

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> The investigation has led to turmoil within the Defense Department, raising tensions and the firings and resignations of several top DoD officials, including former Chief of Staff Joe Kasper. [...] On May 1, 2025, it was revealed that both national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong would be leaving their posts in the National Security Council Let me guess, the "leak" was intentional just to break…

They do a lot of mental heavy lifting to support a corrupt and incompetent administration- sunk cost fallacy I imagine.

Re: Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is actually the opposite of the correct conclusion—just look how influential Patreus cheating on his wife was ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petraeus_scandal ). I seriously doubt that Kash Patel doesn't have a bunch of skeletons to dust off and show the world; the man is a weirdo (much like the rest of the administration). EDIT: I actually misread the comment; I think we're likely in agreement. My bad.

I'd like to chime in and say that that Kash Patel, while completely unprofessional and incompetent, is way less of a weirdo than the rest of the administration. His scandals are all about shirking job responsibilities to party and sightsee. That's not great from the FBI director but its way more normal than the rest of them.

I dunno, a sitting FBI director testifying under oath about details that are clearly false, goes above and way beyond "to party and sightsee". At least in my world it puts him up there together with the rest of the weirdos.
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