FBI hacked, false cybersecurity alerts to thousands of users - HDblog.it

The FBI has been hacked: a group of unknown persons has managed to access a server that manages the mailing lists and has sent false cybersecurity alerts to at least 100,000 addresses. Note that the message does not include links or other means of stealing money: the initiative seems more aimed at causing a bit of havoc and defaming Vinny Troia, researcher, author and expert at InfoSec. The FBI is keen to point out that it has analyzed its internal networks and systems and confirms that nothing has been compromised.

As you can read from the tweet above, the defamation victim has a pretty good idea of ​​who the attacker might be, namely the individual (or group, who knows) hiding behind the @pompompur_in handle on Twitter. . Under the name of The Dark Overlord it became quite famous a few years ago, when it leaked the entire fifth season of Orange is the New Black before the official release on Netflix. Troy also published private messages sent by the hacker which seem to confirm the suspicion quite strongly, and said that in the past he had already been the victim of similar initiatives from the same source; Dark Overlord claimed responsibility for the action by speaking to Krebs on Security's Brian Krebs. For the time being, however, there are no formal charges from the FBI.

Specifically, the hacker managed to take control of the portal called LEEP (Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal), due to an incorrect configuration of one of the servers. The portal is used precisely to send email notifications and exchange information between the various US police bodies, and operates on a completely independent network from the internal one - even from the FBI's internal official email service. Nonetheless, the emails sent by the server appear as legitimate in all respects, since the domain of the address is the official one, that is @ ic.fbi.gov. The attacker himself explained that he succeeded thanks to the poor quality of the portal code: the weak point was that anyone who discovered the site could try to create a new account. The goal of the initiative, according to him, was precisely to expose vulnerability.