Recently the feds suffered a big hack, not once, but twice.
First, the FBI-run InfraGard program suffered a breach. InfraGard aims to strengthen partnerships with the private sector to share information about cyber and physical threats. That organization experienced a major breach in early December, according to a KrebsOnSecurity report.
Allegedly, the InfraGard database — containing contact information of over 80,000 members — appeared up for sale on a cyber crime forum. Also, the hackers have reportedly been communicating with InfraGard members through the program’s portal. The intruders created a new account under the guise of a financial industry CEO previously vetted by the FBI.
If that wasn’t bad enough, a week later, the Russian hacker group known as Killnet claimed responsibility for breaching the FBI’s database and stealing the personal information of over 10,000 U.S. federal agents.
According to the FBI, InfraGard “provides education, networking and information-sharing on security threats and risks” to these critical infrastructure owners and operators. In response to reports about a potential false account on the InfraGard Portal, the FBI stated that the situation is ongoing but cannot provide further information at this time.
KrebsOnSecurity was actually able to contact the seller of the InfraGard database, who goes by the handle “USDoD.” The hacker is also a member of an infamous cyber crime forum called “Breached.” The actor’s avatar is the seal of the U.S. Department of Defense.The threat group USDoD revealed that they gained access to the FBI’s InfraGard system by submitting a new account application using the personal information of a CEO at a company that was likely to be granted membership. Apparently, the FBI never contacted the CEO, currently the head of a major U.S. financial corporation, about an InfraGard application. The CEO’s company has a significant influence on the creditworthiness of many Americans.
USDoD submitted the application in November using the CEO’s name and phone number but with a fake email address. Attackers bypassed the multi-factor authentication required by InfraGard by using the fake email account.
The InfraGard website has an API built into several key components allowing members to communicate with each other. This made the user data easily accessible through the API. After the FBI approved their imposter InfraGard membership, USDoD commissioned a friend to write a Python script to retrieve all available user data from the API.
