On November 13, 2021, a hacker compromised the FBI's external email system, sending thousands of spam emails warning of a fake cyberattack by cybersecurity researcher and CEO of Night Lion Security and Shadowbyte Vinny Troia, who is falsely labeled in the emails as being a part of The Dark Overlord hacking group by the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the I ...

. The emails were sent to addresses taken from the

American Registry for Internet Numbers The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is the regional Internet registry for Canada, the United States, and many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands. ARIN manages the distribution of Internet number resources, including IPv4 and ...

database and it was reported that the hacker used the FBI's public-facing email system which made the emails appear legitimate. The campaign was likely done in an attempt to defame Troia. The hacker "Pompompurin" later claimed responsibility for the hack.

Responses

FBI

The FBI stated that they remediated the software vulnerablilty that caused the attack. They told people to ignore the email and "confirmed the integrity" of the FBI's computer systems following the attack.

Pompompurin

The hacker Pompompurin claimed responsibility for attack claiming in an interview with

Krebs on Security Brian Krebs (born 1972) is an American journalist and investigative reporter. He is best known for his coverage of profit-seeking cybercriminals.Perlroth, Nicole.Reporting From the Web's Underbelly. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved February 28, ...

. In a later interview with

ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010 ...

Pompompurin later claimed the hack was done for "fun."

Vinny Troia

In a blog post, Vinny Troia claimed that Pompompurin alias belonged to the Canadian hacker Chris Meunier. In an interview with ProPublica, Pompompurin denied being Meunier.

References

{{Hacking in the 2020s Federal Bureau of Investigation Hacking in the 2020s Email hacking 2021 in computing November 2021 events in the United States Spamming