Hackers Compromise FBI Email Servers
A "software misconfiguration" allowed cyberhackers to leverage an FBI system ordinarily used by the agency to communicate with state and local law enforcement partners. They sent a phony email purportedly from DHS warning of a cyberattack.
Landwebs
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is acknowledging that hackers compromised its email servers and sent spam messages, but FBI officials they were unable to access any personal identifiable information or other data on its network, reports NPR. The hardware impacted by the incident, a legitimate FBI email address ending in @ic.fbi.gov, “was taken offline quickly upon discovery of the issue,” the FBI said.
The bureau said that a “software misconfiguration” allowed an actor to leverage an FBI system known as the Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal, or LEEP, to send the fake emails, which conveyed falsely a warning from the Department of Homeland Security of a “cyberattack,” Newsweek reported. The system is ordinarily used by the agency to communicate with state and local law enforcement partners. The spam emails went to 100,000 people and warned recipients of a cyberattack on their systems. This is the first known instance of hackers using that same system to send spam messages to a large group of people.
