Podcast: The FBI Was Hacked. We’ve Seen the Data

Read the original at 404 Media ↗
Cite

Cox, J. (2026, October 2). Podcast: The FBI Was Hacked. We’ve Seen the Data. 404 Media. https://www.404media.co/podcast-the-fbi-was-hacked-weve-seen-the-data/

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

404 Media · collected 2026-10-02 · by Joseph Cox

Quick Summary

Joseph discusses a major FBI data breach reported by 404 Media, involving stolen information on all FBI employees and their spouses. Jason then covers plans by a surveillance company to integrate facial recognition technology into Flock camera systems. Subscribers can access an extended discussion about Meta’s new AI, Muse, which includes insights into human involvement behind AI tasks. The podcast is available on platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, with bonus subscriber content provided via email or directly through the podcast app.
Written by AI on 2026-10-02, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

ShinyHunters, a notorious hacking group, claimed on September 22 that they breached the FBIjobs.gov website and stole personal data from thousands of current and former FBI employees. The hackers obtained sensitive information such as names, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and dates of birth for many agents and job applicants. ShinyHunters defaced the FBI's jobs portal with a mocking message that included President Trump’s signature phrase "Thank you for your attention to this matter," implying retaliation against his administration.

The FBI acknowledged unauthorized activity affecting their job application site but did not confirm the theft of data. Reuters partially verified some stolen information by cross-referencing it with credit bureau records and previous breaches, finding matches in at least nine cases. The hackers threatened further action if the FBI does not address what they see as false allegations against them.

The breach potentially impacted a significant number of individuals who applied for or held positions within the FBI since 2017 when the site became the primary application platform for agent and support roles. The full extent of data compromised remains unclear, but ShinyHunters shared what they claim is a small sample dataset involving approximately 5,000 individuals.

Written for “FBI Data Breach” on 2026-10-30, grounded in this article and the 22 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 FBI Data Breach
Crime & Law · 23 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
FBI Hackers Say They Won’t Publish Massive Trove of FBI Employee Data Same event
404 Media
Hedges 5 of 45 claims Outlet record 95/100
FBI hack claim raises fears over sensitive personal data Same event
Fox News
Hedges 36 of 141 claims Outlet record 70/100
ShinyHunters hackers say they won't leak sensitive FBI data Different event
CBC News
Hedges 4 of 30 claims Outlet record 74/100
“Article A discusses ShinyHunters' statement about not leaking sensitive FBI data, while Article B references the breach itself and is a podcast teaser about covering the story.”
FBI hunting the hackers who stole its employees' sensitive data Different event
NPR
Hedges 9 of 27 claims Outlet record 60/100
“Article A describes the FBI's response and vow to find hackers who stole data, while Article B refers to a podcast covering the breach of data on all FBI employees and their spouses.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
7
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 7 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
95/100
404 Media's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
23
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-02 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

404 Media · 174 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Joseph Cox
25 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
🔮 A letter written by Telegram, and providing a specific user’s phone number, user ID, and IP address, reads: Dear Sir or Madam, For this particular case, the following information was available: User #7149269705 : +201155664529 [Mahmoud Almohtadi] IP 184.186.72.239, 8 Oct 2025 2:08:12 We hope this information will be helpful in your investigation. Kind regards, The Telegram Team The letter says Telegram provided the data “voluntarily” and that by providing it, Telegram is “not conceding that we are subject to U.S. jurisdiction for this or any other request or any purpose.”
2026-10-16 · assertive framing · Here’s What Telegram Giving Data to the U.S. Government Looks Like
🔮 This is pretty normal in the advertising world, but I seriously doubt that when most of ChatGPT’s many, many users see an ad, they realize that might be because someone, somewhere, uploaded their phone number into OpenAI’s systems.
2026-10-15 · assertive framing · ChatGPT Ads Target Your Phone Number, Email
🔮 Multiple Democrat, Republican, and Independent lawmakers have introduced new pieces of legislation that, if passed, would dramatically curb federal agencies’ access to Flock cameras, with the lawmakers referencing reporting by 404 Media in their explanations for why the legislation is needed.
2026-10-06 · assertive framing · Lawmakers Introduce Multiple Laws to Curb Flock After 404 Media Coverage
🔮 Although any potential damage will be less if ShinyHunters doesn’t publish the data publicly, the theft happening at all still presents much of those same national security risks, with the data providing granular insight into how the FBI operates. “Since the very beginning we had made our decision that we would never publish this data.
2026-09-28 · assertive framing · FBI Hackers Say They Won’t Publish Massive Trove of FBI Employee Data
🔮 What is different in this latest Copilot episode, and 404 Media’s reporting on contractors at other AI companies like OpenAI, is that the content humans are reviewing are prompts and uploads that chatbot users may assume are private, and that the contractors are not looking at this material to train the models to filter out offensive images or for some other safety concern.
2026-09-28 · assertive framing · Humans Are Reading Copilot Prompts — And They're Horrified
🔮 And the ALPR Hostlist Management Audit report details changes made to alerts the agency may receive.
2026-09-21 · assertive framing · Is Your City Using Axon License Plate Cameras? We Need Your Help
🔮 Georgia State University has rescinded a job offer given to a high profile activist who is currently fighting a case in which he allegedly wiped a security-focused Android phone before Customs and Border Protection (CBP) could search it.
2026-09-17 · assertive framing · University Rescinds Job Offer to Activist Who Allegedly Wiped Phone Before DHS Could Search It
🔮 The prompts these people review can include whole conversations between users and the chatbot, conversations that most of ChatGPT’s more than 900 million users probably don’t realize may be read by actual people.
2026-09-14 · assertive framing · Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats
🔮 Apparently over the cross of that source and interviewer relationship, Biden “asked if he could use our mailing list whenever he launched a new product,” according to a statement posted by Channel 5 to X on Monday.
2026-09-09 · assertive framing · Channel 5 Gave Hunter Biden a List of Its Subscribers’ Emails for Some Reason
🔮 Border Patrol is running secretive predictive policing units that analyze Americans’ financial activity and other data, then feed that intelligence to local police who pull people over who are not suspected of any specific crime, but which the government thinks may be worth searching, 404 Media has found.
2026-09-08 · mixed framing · A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over
Also by Joseph Cox
Here’s What Telegram Giving Data to the U.S. Government Looks Like
2026-10-16 · 404 Media
ChatGPT Ads Target Your Phone Number, Email
2026-10-15 · 404 Media
Podcast: Leak Show Cops Can Break into Locked iPhones
2026-10-08 · 404 Media
Lawmakers Introduce Multiple Laws to Curb Flock After 404 Media Coverage
2026-10-06 · 404 Media
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 25 articles by Joseph Cox →

Topics

404 Media FBI Flock Muse YouTube

Subjects

FBI ORG · 2× Jason PERSON · 2× Joseph PERSON · 2× YouTube ORG · 2× 404 Media ORG · 1× Apple Podcasts ORG · 1× Meta ORG · 1× Spotify ORG · 1× Transistor PERSON · 1×

Narrative

In the subscribers-only section, Jason and Joseph chat all about Muse, Meta’s new agentic AI, and how humans are actually behind some of the tasks.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-02
2026-10-02 · 404 Media
Podcast: The FBI Was Hacked. We’ve Seen the Data · assertive framing

Claims (7 extracted, 0 hedged)

We start this week with Joseph’s stories on the massive FBI hack. asserted
We → start → hack
404 Media broke this news and continued to cover the breach of data on all FBI employees and their spouses. asserted
Media → break → employees
After the break, Jason tells us how a surveillance company is telling cops it wants to add facial recognition tech to Flock camera data. asserted
it → tell → data
In the subscribers-only section, Jason and Joseph chat all about Muse, Meta’s new agentic AI, and how humans are actually behind some of the tasks. asserted
humans → chat → tasks
If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! asserted
you → become → version
You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. asserted
You → add → episode
The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. asserted
email → contain → version
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