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Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email
https://ddosecrets.org/article/kash-patel-emails https://ddosecrets.org/article/kash-patel-emails
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/doj-confirms-fbi-director-kash-patels-personal-email-was-hacked/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/doj-confirms-fbi...
- b8 7mo agoNot surprising as email providers like Yahoo's security are a joke. A former CIA director got his personal emailed pwned as well.
- everdrive 7mo agoInteresting, and not all that implausible. The real test: his personal email should be pretty uninteresting except for stuff like HIPAA, amazon purchases, communications with friends / family. (good for HUMINT) But other than that, there shouldn't be anything in there which should make the news. It'll be interesting to see whether or not that bears out. If they wanted to maintain access, they certainly wouldn't celebrate it publicly, which is why I assume they want to release information. But, there shouldn't be anything damning to release. ie, there ought not to be if the director is acting professionally. We'll see how the facts bear out. I also suppose it's possible they're just going for any win they can and there's nothing interesting here whatsoever, or it's a really boring secondary address or something.
- tencentshill 7mo agoSurely we are currently clean on OPSEC. There couldn't be any precedent for government officials using private email servers for confidential information!
- vessenes 7mo agoobligatory - that first famous private server was done because someone wanted a blackberry like Obama had, and was told no by NSA. Man that BB keyboard was good.
- bookofjoe 7mo agoCheck this out (can't wait til mine arrives): https://www.clicks.tech/ https://www.clicks.tech/
- connorgurney 7mo agoI’ve been using a Clicks case since the early days and have personally loved every second of it but it’s definitely an acquired taste. Let us know how you find it.
- bookofjoe 7mo agoWill do!
- the_why_of_y 7mo agoThat can't be the first one. Colin Powell used a personal email account during the GWB administration. https://www.npr.org/2016/09/08/493133413/colin-powells-ways-around-disclosure-detailed-in-new-email https://www.npr.org/2016/09/08/493133413/colin-powells-ways-... Of course that pales in comparison with the practices of the GWB White House: https://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/23/george-w-bush-white-house-lost-22-million-emails-497373.html https://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/23/george-w-bush-white-hous...
- embedding-shape 7mo ago> his personal email should be pretty uninteresting except for stuff like HIPAA, amazon purchases, communications with friends / family. (good for HUMINT) But other than that, there shouldn't be anything in there which should make the news. It'll be interesting to see whether or not that bears out. Aren't these the same people who apparently used Signal with a journalist in the chat, and had military conversations in that very chat? Color me surprised if these people haven't heard of opsec before, and mix their work/personal life all over the place.
- everdrive 7mo agoYes, and I wouldn't be shocked if there was classified information in there. I struggled with wording, but what I meant was "you're not supposed to be able to find classified or sensitive information in personal email, but I who knows what will be the case here."
- throwa356262 7mo ago[flagged]
- embedding-shape 7mo ago> The investigation has led to turmoil within the Defense Department, raising tensions and the firings and resignations of several top DoD officials, including former Chief of Staff Joe Kasper. [...] On May 1, 2025, it was revealed that both national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong would be leaving their posts in the National Security Council Let me guess, the "leak" was intentional just to break a bunch of laws and to cause a bunch of people to get fired and leave their posts?
- apercu 7mo agoThey do a lot of mental heavy lifting to support a corrupt and incompetent administration- sunk cost fallacy I imagine.
- Forgeties79 7mo ago
- throwaway27448 7mo agoI think this is actually the opposite of the correct conclusion—just look how influential Patreus cheating on his wife was (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petraeus_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petraeus_scandal). I seriously doubt that Kash Patel doesn't have a bunch of skeletons to dust off and show the world; the man is a weirdo (much like the rest of the administration). EDIT: I actually misread the comment; I think we're likely in agreement. My bad.
- hypeatei 7mo agoThere is so much corruption and impropriety in this administration that skeletons don't matter anymore. Looking at what sunk officials in previous administrations provides a sense for just how far gone we are, but it's not an indicator of what future consequences will be.
- Loughla 7mo agoDan Quayle lost a serious bid because he couldn't spell potato. Now look at where we're at. It really is wild. Right, wrong, or indifferent. How far we've shifted is absolutely wild.
- throwaway27448 7mo agoDan Quayle also had the charisma of a potato. Let's not overfit this curve.
- Jare 7mo agoI don't know, these days skeletons seem to be treated as funny decoration and we're in a permanent state of Halloween.
- redanddead 7mo agoSullying Halloween's good name
- scrollop 7mo ago
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- BigTTYGothGF 7mo agoThose "should"s are doing a lot of heavy lifting.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- firefax 7mo ago>his personal email should be pretty uninteresting except for stuff like HIPAA medical diagnoses can be incredibly useful in understanding past and future actions >there shouldn't be anything damning to release. ie, there ought not to be if the director is acting professionally that "if" is doing some heavy lifting given who we are discussing
- lanevich 7mo ago[dead]
- rurp 7mo agoAre we talking about the same FBI director here? Professional and competent are not how I would describe Kash Patel. Given his overt buffoonishness and the whole administration's disdain for procedure and expertise I would be shocked if he didn't have extremely inappropriate content in his inbox.
- conception 7mo agoI believe “if” is doing a tremendous amount of work in parent’s comment.
- JeremyNT 7mo ago> The real test: his personal email should be pretty uninteresting except for stuff like HIPAA, amazon purchases, communications with friends / family. (good for HUMINT) But other than that, there shouldn't be anything in there which should make the news. I have no idea why this would be the default assumption for somebody as sloppy and erratic as Patel. Look at how many people were emailing damning stuff to/from Epstein's personal email accounts from their own personal email accounts!
- bitwank 7mo agoYeah, the fact they announced it proves it’s nothing. I saw a picture of him smoking a cigar. We’ve already seen him drinking beer and acting foolish; probably enough to get you executed in Isfahan, but a giant nothining in the USA.
- GorbachevyChase 7mo agoWe’re not getting any juicy leaks from it because it’s just full of 20-year-old memes and meeting invites to look busy.
- renegade-otter 7mo agoBut his girlfriend, though... https://www.tabletmag.com/the-scroll/articles/march-25-kash-patel-girlfriend-flynn-russians https://www.tabletmag.com/the-scroll/articles/march-25-kash-...
- MomsAVoxell 7mo agoIt would be damning to discover that he was compromised by a foreign adversary. Or that he was participating in actively covering up the Epstein crime portfolio. Maybe it wouldn’t be enough to get American citizens in an uproar, but the rest of the world certainly pays attention to these things.
- nickpinkston 7mo agoIran... if you're listening... We'd love to see all of those Epstein files.
- huggerl88 7mo ago[flagged]
- taytus 7mo agoWho said they are the enemy?
- bcjdjsndon 7mo agoYeah lol, if you're suddenly policeman of the world going after evil regimes, how is North Korea still standing? They're forced to be robots or they're killed
- pasquinelli 7mo agoconsider that the same people that tell you what's going on in the DPRK also said iran was two weeks away from nuking the middle east, that something called the cartel of the sun was responsible for the drug trade in the united states, and that epstein killed himself.
- guzfip 7mo agoAt the end of the day. There are enough idiots to fall for it not once, but twice. The exact same lie. We’re doomed because the people are idiots.
- embedding-shape 7mo agoMaybe we need to get rid of the concept of "enemy" and "ally", as seemingly those labels matter less and less as time goes on. Maybe one is the "enemy", and the others can be "less enemy" and "more enemy". So we're all enemies in reality, but some more enemies than others.
- techpulse_x 7mo ago[flagged]
- CrzyLngPwd 7mo agoWhere did the article go?
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- _slih 7mo agoForget the Iran attribution for a second. The FBI director's personal email was already in leaked credential databases from prior breaches.
- bcjdjsndon 7mo agoEvery now and then something happens that makes me wonder how the fuck America is number one, this being one of them.
- jorts 7mo agoBecause America is a lot more than a podcaster put into a position that he has no qualifications for.
- 1234letshaveatw 7mo ago[flagged]
- 1234letshaveatw 7mo agoWe're ranked number one based on the summation of all the angsty teen America bad comments on social media. At least that is the stat the press goes off of I believe
- bpt3 7mo agoLoads of natural resources, no local military threats, and historically a government that stayed out of the way and allowed individuals to reap the rewards of their efforts. The first is almost impossible to screw up, though we're really trying on the last front.
- krapp 7mo agoAmerica had the advantage of getting through WW2 relatively unscathed with lots of resources and intact infrastructure that it used to leverage against the reconstruction of Europe, Japan and the USSR and entrench its cultural and economic hegemony. Also the US essentially colonized the West with nuclear weapons under the guise of "Pax Americana" and making the dollar the reserve currency. That's really it. Not moral superiority, not technical ingenuity, not the indomitable American spirit. Just imperialist opportunism.
- ThaDood 7mo agoIf you check their telegram channel they have some humorous photos and his resume.
- bcjdjsndon 7mo agoLooking good there, murica, looking good
- mlmonkey 7mo ago> On their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said . . . . Anybody have a link? You know, for science ... Edit: Apparently, just last week the DoJ snatched their domains: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-iranian-cyber-enabled-psychological-operations https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-i...
- megous 7mo agonot all of them, search harder
- AnimalMuppet 7mo agoSo, to echo the previous comment, got a link? "Search harder" is a pretty unfriendly response to a request for a link...
- megous 7mo agoJust saying that there's a working link if you search. It's a useful information on its own. There's no reason to post it directly. Their server is slow today even without adding lazy (ok, HN readers not interested in applying some effort to the matter) HN readers to the mix.
- macNchz 7mo agoI've been wondering if we'd see a cyber campaign emerge in this conflict. To my knowledge Iran seems to have pretty advanced cyber capabilities and increasingly fewer reasons to hold back. Gloves-off cyber war doesn't sound good to me. The US CISA already been cut back, has lost "virtually all of its top officials"^, doesn't have a permanent director, and is operating at a further reduced capacity because of the DHS shutdown. ^ https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-senior-official-departures/748992/ https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-senior-official-...
- mandeepj 7mo ago> To my knowledge Iran seems to have pretty advanced cyber capabilities and increasingly fewer reasons to hold back. Iran isn’t alone!! They are a quad along with China, Russia, and North Korea.
- Painsawman123 7mo agothat's the thing that people overlook the most in regards to this war.iran isn’t doing this on its own. Russia, China and north korea have been backing it from the start. they’re the ones helping with intel on US base locations across the Middle East, supplying drones, and working out strategies to drag things into a stalemate, plus whatever else iran needs along the way
- epolanski 7mo agoCan you blame them? Iran is fighting for its own survival and has to find help where it can. If the US had an educated administration not composed by lap dogs they would've known that attacking Iran was going to be a terrible idea. Saddam did the same mistake in 1980. He thought that the Iranian Kurds, the political opponents, the Iranian Arabs, civilians were going to raise against the regime. None of this happened. None. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people, even kids, rallied around the banner. There are documented stories of 13 year olds, jumping on barbed wire to use their bodies as bridges for infantry. Disgusting, yet telling of the fact that the Persians will do everything to defend their land even if they don't like its leadership. It's very difficult to convince people you're bombing left that you're helping them get rid of a regime (which, you never know for sure how popular or unpopular it is). Iranians, yet again, are rallying around the flag for what is effectively a foreign aggression.
- paxys 7mo agoA couple of DOGE teenagers were able to casually walk in and steal the entire country's social security and healthcare data (and probably more), and we were cheering them on. There is still no accountability, and it has probably already been sold to the highest bidder. So this would be the least surprising thing in the world.
- firefax 7mo agoAllow me to put on my tinfoil hat for a moment and propose that maybe DOGE did loudly what the Solarwinds paired with OPM breach did quietly years prior.
- fn-mote 7mo agoOPM was much more serious. Equifax had already leaked the social security data and more.
- drstewart 7mo ago[flagged]
- magicalist 7mo agoI don't know if this is an irony thing I'm not getting, but we know they had untracked access to data they shouldn't have (violating data access rules and orders from a judge), and there is a whistleblower accusation that the data was retained and some DOGE staffers were at least talking with other groups who could use the data. Meanwhile how would Hunter Biden, not a government employee nor having access to government systems, get that data in the first place?
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- creantum 7mo ago[flagged]
- thejazzman 7mo agoHacked
- creantum 7mo agoLeaked
- john_strinlai 7mo agoi am eagerly awaiting your evidence for this claim
- danso 7mo agoyeah it’s totally plausible that Google would risk the reputation and legal status of its global multi-trillion empire to dunk on one of the handful of people who have the near-unilateral authority to dismantle them
- mattbis 7mo agoI really want to know how they did it.. was it some terrible password? He doesn't strike me as the kinda person even using a local password manager; like keepass. Somebody needs to find this out. I doubt it was gmail support... surely it could not be via his phone sim, and if he didn't have two factor on; That would be so funny. I'm tempted to check out the dark web or the telegram, but i'd rather not do either of those things.
- danso 7mo agoI too am very curious about this. Even if his password was exposed and he didn’t have 2-factor auth, doesn’t Google by default ask for confirmation — e.g. texting a number or backup email associated with the account — when seeing an unrecognized device? Maybe he didn’t have any alt contact methods associated with his account? (which might not be that unusual, he’s old enough to have opened a gmail account upon launch, before extra info hoops were put in place, and maybe he never touched his account config in the past 2 decades?
- mattbis 7mo agoYou are probably right... I tend to change my password semi often. It's always a super complex impossible to remember string - and always keep an eye on the account activity. Not to mention ; you would assume he should have more than one device linked to the account and then that adds another layer, since Google will ask you " is this you trying to logon ". <-- that is the only way to get Google to do the unrecognized flow you mention. If you are suggesting it was exposed and he didn't immediately randomise all his passwords.. WORDS FAIL ME It's all security 101 the irony is immense... if the US government / FBI need someone to give some talks on how to do security ...
- ffsm8 7mo agoChanging a password that's randomly generated is security theatre. It doesn't meaningfully improve security Also it's entirely possible they only compromised a honeypot. Considering their track record, that's actually more likely tbh
- basisword 7mo agoHow the heck is the buried down to page 4 after one hour?? The head of the FBI having his email hacked is a pretty big tech story.
- nickburns 7mo agoNegative voting.
- rationalist 7mo agoLots of personal opinions and low-effort jabs in this thread.
- jameskilton 7mo agoBut ... but her emails!
- Levitz 7mo agoI mean, yes? You can give whatever weight you want to the whole thing, but the core issue with Hillary Clinton and the emails was that she was storing material on a private server rather than in official infrastructure. If Patel didn't do such thing here, the breach should only expose personal stuff, if he did, then it's much more of a problem, but either way this is a really clear example of why concern was raised back at the time.
- griffzhowl 7mo agoBut just a personal account with materials reportedly from 2011-2022, not an FBI breach
- pixl97 7mo ago>“This isn’t an FBI compromise — it’s someone’s personal junk drawer,” he said. Eh, with how many people in the current administration seem to use out of band channels to communicate very important things who knows what else they located.
- sirbutters 7mo agoMost incompetent administration in the modern era.
- helterskelter 7mo agoThink about it this way, this administration is the most competent administraion we've ever had at being incompetent.
- Muhammad523 7mo agoI dont know why your comment got grayed out but it made me smile.
- ranyume 7mo agoThis isn’t a written by a human — it's a AI-accelerated piece.
- Spellinator 7mo agoAs if this is the first time this has ever happened. How many former officials used personal accounts about government business? How many corporate executives communicate business via personal accounts to avoid legal discovery? How many individuals communicate outside their main email accounts to avoid scrutiny or attribution? Point is, nobody should feel superior or shocked that such things like this happen. I understand some enjoy the privacy of their perceived enemies being exposed, but IMHO, nobody should be happy about invasion of anyone's privacy.
- 7174n6 7mo agoI'm sure it will be embarrassing for him personally, but not a breach of U.S. government systems. Kudos to CNN for publishing a balanced take on it.
- SirFatty 7mo agoYou're assuming that he didn't use personal email for his FBI "work".
- 7174n6 7mo agoThe leak is from 2011-2022. He wasn't in the government then!!!!
- phonon 7mo agoAre you kidding? He had extremely sensitive roles as Devin Nunes' House committee aide from 2017–2019 in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, National Security Council aide and deputy director of national intelligence (2019–2020), and then Chief of staff to the secretary of defense (2020–2021).
- enoint 7mo agoI wonder how much of 2021. Two FBI agents reported that he was the bag man for payments to alter Jan 6 cases. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/us/politics/house-weaponization-committee-jan-6.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WVA.o7YF.hffW3k1IwGTY&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/us/politics/house-weaponi...
- Hikikomori 7mo agoMaybe something fun about his book. https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Against-King-Kash-Patel/dp/1955550123 https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Against-King-Kash-Patel/dp/19555...
- Muhammad523 7mo ago
- mplanchard 7mo agoLink if you want to look: https://bsky.app/profile/ddosecrets.org/post/3mi2iokglyn2w https://bsky.app/profile/ddosecrets.org/post/3mi2iokglyn2w
- FlamingMoe 7mo agoInteresting comment: "if Iran ends up responsible for regime change in the US, i will be overjoyed as i die from irony"
- demosito666 7mo agoAnd it is more than likely. US and Iran probably can’t defeat each other militarily (us obviously can, but it requires full scale ground invasion which is not even contemplated at the moment). And both can’t back out of the conflict. So the likely outcome is that the conflict escalates until one of the regimes snaps and it becomes to somehow politically possible to back out. Collapse of the regime in Iran seems unlikely at the moment because it’s hard and zealous dictatorship with unlimited power and will for violence within the country. In the US OTOH the elections are coming. An administration that started a stupid and absolutely preventable war and then effectively lost faces quite a challenge there despite everything else. This seems like a perfect moment for Iran to create a deterrent for US: attacking us ends your presidency.
- LtWorf 7mo agoUSA cannot do a full scale invasion without major internal unrest.
- esseph 7mo agoIf the newest batch of 10,000 is approved, we're up to 17,000 combat troops deployed for this. (Marines there as of Mar 27, another 3,500 in about two weeks, and then at least 1 battalion of the 82nd Airborne, plus another 10,000 requested) I have heard other units getting pre-mobilization / warnings. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/middle_east/2026-03-27/82nd-airborne-10000-troops-iran-21196096.html https://www.stripes.com/theaters/middle_east/2026-03-27/82nd... (This would not nearly be enough troops for large scale ground conflict, but it might be enough to go into the island tunnels looking for drones and ballistic missiles while the US tries to hold open the straight by force for... However long that takes)
- joe_mamba 7mo ago[flagged]
- nullable_bool 7mo agoGone are the days of the strong silent type running the roles of high power in the government. He is a real embarrassment and I feel sorry for his mother.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- snovymgodym 7mo ago> I feel sorry for his mother. In all likelihood his upbringing is what made him this way.
- acuozzo 7mo agoYou think so? Peers, in my experience, have an even greater impact, especially between the ages of 10 and 25.
- stingraycharles 7mo agoAnd it’s your upbringing that has the biggest impact on who your peers will become.
- acuozzo 7mo agoMy parents were great, but if we were forced by circumstance to live in the worst parts of the US (e.g., Appalachia), then no amount of having a "good upbringing" would shield me from having a peer group which would routinely put it to the test.
- paxys 7mo ago[flagged]
- 1234letshaveatw 7mo agoIf “woke” means asinine politically motivated witch hunts and hiring practices then yeah, and rightfully so
- dyauspitr 7mo ago[flagged]
- knowaveragejoe 7mo agoRemember when that was considered an actual issue in 2016? I remember congressional hearings over this.
- e2le 7mo agoFor those who decried Hillary's E-Mail server but fail to apply the same standards to the current administration, it was never a real issue to begin with. Just performative nonsense.
- add-sub-mul-div 7mo agoAnd it's not a coincidence that they're also the ones who shout about "meritocracy" the loudest.
- Tostino 7mo agoThis was an extremely limited leak. Just looked through the zip. I wouldn't doubt he does use his personal email for government purposes, but it's not in here.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- akdev1l 7mo ago>just a slow decline into incompetence. Give them some credit, it’s been quite rapid.
- chrisweekly 7mo agowhen were they anything other than incompetent?
- morkalork 7mo agoNo worries. As long as rigorous due diligence was followed when vetting him as a candidate, there will surely be nothing embarrassing or harmful found in his personal emails.
- ck2 7mo agoI'm sorry but nothing can ever be more embarrassing for that man who wrote this book to get that job https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Against-King-Kash-Patel/dp/1955550123 https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Against-King-Kash-Patel/dp/19555... What an absolute clown But far more seriously, imagine the danger he has put this country into by firing so many critical people, some specifically and uniquely for Iran and Middle-East defense Let's hope we don't get another 9/11 in the next 1000 days because they are completely unprepared and won't ever see it coming, maybe even on purpose
- Oarch 7mo agoHow am I only finding out about this now... my sides
- autoexec 7mo ago> Let's hope we don't get another 9/11 in the next 1000 days because they are completely unprepared and won't ever see it coming, maybe even on purpose Why would anyone bother to attack us now? This entire administration has done more to make The US weak and vulnerable than any outside attacker could have hoped to accomplish. They can just sit back and watch rome burn
- gverrilla 7mo ago> Why would anyone bother to attack us now? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States_in_the_21st_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_Uni...
- autoexec 7mo agoWe've given a lot of people a lot of reasons to hate us sure, but no matter how much you hate someone, if you see them kicking their own ass it just makes sense to let them finish before you jump in.
- 4k0hz 7mo ago[dead]
- pugchat 7mo ago[dead]
- paxys 7mo agoI feel like sending phishing emails for penis enlargement pills would take down half the current administration.
- disantlor 7mo agoworth a try
- penguin_booze 7mo agoI know someone who will be interested in bigger hands--big beautiful hands.
- Muhammad523 7mo agoI must say, i'd prefer if my hands remained the same size they are now. I dont want to lose my dexterity. Slightly offtopic
- alsetmusic 7mo agoUncle Jack, get out of here.
- fmajid 7mo agoGMail, like Apple, has specific enhanced security programs available for Politically Exposed Persons: https://landing.google.com/intl/en_in/advancedprotection/ https://landing.google.com/intl/en_in/advancedprotection/ The fact the Director of the FBI did not avail himself of this just reiterates how incompetent he is, in addition to being corrupt as heck.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- kevin_thibedeau 7mo agoIt's possible it was breached in 2022 and they've held on to it until now.
- leereeves 7mo agoIt's also possible that he maintained security by not putting anything worth hacking on gmail.
- pdpi 7mo agoSecurity in depth. Even if you think you don't have anything particularly valuable in there, you still protect it as if you did.
- leereeves 7mo agoI'd rather he worry about securing government secrets, not spend one second worrying about "personal photographs of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique convertible, and making a face while taking a picture of himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum".
- ndsipa_pomu 7mo agoObviously government secrets need to be properly secured, but the personal info/photos of a top official can often be used for blackmail or for determining close friends that could be used to compromise Patel.
- BenFranklin100 7mo agoI’m surprised no group has hacked the Epstein files, given the extreme interest.
- saltyoldman 7mo agohacking groups are generally funded by the people that are in the files. -> government leaders.
- caaqil 7mo agoIf you read the news with enough cynicism, you'll realize that rules like formality, password strength or cybersecurity hygiene are for the average Joes, not the morons/perverts who run the world.
- trhway 7mo agoHegseth - Signal app Noem - habeas corpus definition she gave at the Congress hearing Kennedy Jr - vaccines and the rest of his view on medicine Now Patel's unhackable FBI. I think the world has changed, and i really need to update my expectations of what is new normal. It is like in tech when paradigm shift happens, and you're either go with the new paradigm or get irrelevant.
- conductr 7mo agoIf Idiocracy was made today, I wonder how far in the future they’d place it. In 2006, they thought 500 years which seems optimistic now.
- thereisnospork 7mo agoFuture? I'm thinking a Borat style mockumentary in the present.
- scotty79 7mo agoI think it's the future of entertainment. Ruthlessly mocking idiots in power (and others). To be honest it's the present of some entertainment.
- petre 7mo agoWhat's the use of mockery after they bombed a girls' school and killed at least 175 innocent people? I'd like to see the IRGC erased off the face of the Earth, but not like this. This is exponentially worse than Bush jr. reading a children's book on 9/11.
- mattkevan 7mo agoWe’re way beyond Idiocracy now, we left that timeline six years ago. For all his flaws, Camacho was a good leader - he recognised there was a problem, knew he couldn’t fix it and actively rallied the world around the one person who could. This bunch of dipshits expressly denigrated the experts, refused to take the slightest precaution to protect themselves and others from a deadly virus and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. And that’s not even thinking about the industrial levels of fuckery and bullshit they’ve perpetrated over the last year.
- chao- 7mo agoFrom the administration that brought us "We are currently clean on OPSEC", I can't claim surprise. Disappointment, but not surprise. Nor, however, can I take the statements of malicious actors at face value. They hacked a personal email address, but that does not mean "the FBI’s security was nothing more than a joke".
- calvinmorrison 7mo agoThese government officials are idiots. Jeffery Epstein, idiot. Why do even rich and powerful use easily hackable stuff? Lest us not forget bObama@yahoo.com or the IT guy who worked for the Clinton foundation who posted about bleachbit on recdit
- tomjakubowski 7mo agoObama's old personal email was at defunct ISP ameritech.net, not Yahoo. I only remember because that's the ISP I grew up with. Trump using yourefired as his Twitter password well into his 2016 campaign was amazing, too.
- calvinmorrison 7mo agoIdiots
- lostlogin 7mo agoI'm surprised he put the 'e' on 'you're'.
- dhosek 7mo agoAmeritech.net was backed by yahoo’s mail and IIRC, joefish@ameritech.net and joefish@yahoo.com would be the same mailbox.
- gzread 7mo agoBecause they are experts in acquiring riches and power, not experts in computer security.
- noosphr 7mo agoImagine a world where gpg encryption was the norm instead of something that only works reliably in Emacs.
- jonathanstrange 7mo agoThis wouldn't have happened if Kash Patel used Emacs, that's right.
- bryanrasmussen 7mo agoI think it's a pretty cynical take that an Emacs user will never be made FBI director.
- razingeden 7mo agoare you saying someone can’t key information into an NCIC profile with EMacs? Ha! furious typing
- bryanrasmussen 7mo agoaw damn, you're keying my information into an NCIC profile right now aren't you!!?
- AndrewKemendo 7mo agoYou know, thats really my main takeaway from all this. Once you really boil it down
- noncoml 7mo agoHow would GPG help? GPG is as safe as your private key is. If someone gets "hacks you" and gets access to your private key, it's over
- noosphr 7mo agohttps://dangerousthings.com/product/apex-flex/ https://dangerousthings.com/product/apex-flex/
- unparagoned 7mo agoIt’s all fine since he didn’t use it for official business right, right…
- justonceokay 7mo agoOr more likely unofficial business
- pnw 7mo agoBased on the links in the articles, it's personal photographs and a resume from an old Gmail account. The resume dates from 2017.
- justonceokay 7mo agoIf they got into the account they got everything. The publicly released pictures are more of a taunt meant to publicly signal that he’s fucked. I would bet (figuratively) that anyrhing of actual value is either being sold or leveraged. After all this is a man that has shown an almost infinite capacity for humiliation.
- drfloyd51 7mo agoThe FBI just made a bounty to find who hacked family photos. I am sure the FBI will do that for my family too right? Or we’re more than family photos hacked?
- kingo55 7mo agoMaybe the family un-friendly kind?
- jnaina 7mo agoapparently it was a gooner account for one of the popular adult websites.
- k310 7mo agoA great many experts in the military, medicine, disaster relief, and cybersecurity { the list goes on } were fired. It's almost as if the nation were being weakened on purpose. Don't get mad, get Vlad. Or just prepare for the long-desired Rapture.[0] and which politicians seem to be working very hard to being about (the Apocalypse part, anyway) [0] https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/29/us/iran-israel-evangelicals-prophecy-cec https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/29/us/iran-israel-evangelicals-p... > Prophecy, not politics, may also shape America’s clash with Iran So, is prophecy OK in a pitch deck? Asking for a friend.
- RobRivera 7mo agoWhen do the Raptor puppets go on sale?
- leereeves 7mo agoWere any of the people fired responsible for security on personal gmail accounts?
- idiotsecant 7mo agoIts both dumber and more dangerous than that. Competent people are not valuable to governments that value loyalty more than competence.
- gotwaz 7mo ago"Competent" people are not valuable and over rated because they will flake out in such jobs when the group holds them responsible for all sorts of things they have no control over. They are the first people who recognize lumits. Their own, their teams and the systems. But people dont want to hear about Limits. They want saviors and messaihs. They want fantasy and magic. So the system runs not optimized for efficiency but illusion of control, for damping of anxieties and fears.
- genxy 7mo agoOver 90% of my managers got into their positions by either stabbing someone in the back, or walking across their dead body.
- sv123 7mo agoClowns, all the way down.
- jameson 7mo agoI wonder how many others are hacked but remain undiscovered
- longislandguido 7mo agoConsidering 95% of spam that hits my inbox originates from compromised Gmail accounts, I'd say it's a few. Because Google is too big to fail, all Gmail traffic is essentially whitelisted and they can't be bothered to do anything about it.
- detourdog 7mo agoAlmost all phishing attempts at my domain are from google. Many Norton subscription bills for around $350. I report every single one to google. I can’t believe they aren’t using there AI to figure this out.
- mcmcmc 7mo ago> I can’t believe they aren’t using there AI to figure this out. Why would they burn compute on it when they have zero incentive to fix the problem?
- gzread 7mo agoGoogle was banned from Usenet once, so there's hope. Every single provider was so fed up with spam they just blocked the whole network.
- themafia 7mo agoMeanwhile have a complaint volume of more than 0.1% and they'll consider you extremely suspicious and start actively interfering with your deliveries. Then you get into the forgotten early 2000s era google "postmaster tools" to try to poke through the chicken entrails to divine the nature of your issue.
- upheaval7276 7mo agoI'm no fan of this administration, at all, but this seems like a big fat nothingburger. They hacked a personal gmail account, not a government account, not government infra. Why is this not a failing of Google instead of the government? And surely the hackers would have eagerly released anything damning, but nothing damning seems to exist. What am i missing here?
- margalabargala 7mo agoIt's not a big deal, for the reasons you mentioned. But it's interesting to a lot of people, and therefore newsworthy.
- upheaval7276 7mo agoit's definitely newsworthy, no doubt there. but i see so many people in this thread pointing to this as somehow a failing of the fbi, which it's not. i'm all for calling out this administration for its many many failings, but this is not one of them, and calling this a failure of the administration just hurts the credibility of everyone pointing out real issues with this administration.
- m_ke 7mo agojust think of what could someone do if they got into your personal email account?
- upheaval7276 7mo agoyes, and...?
- ohyoutravel 7mo agoMajor public figure who is currently in a position of power in the USA. That’s bad news because it reveals sensitive details which may lead to their further compromise. Imagine you’re compromised by a corrupt administration with pics of CSAM or something already, now imagine a foreign actor also having compromised you. It’s a sticky situation.
- dlev_pika 7mo agoI still can’t get over the fact that *Kash “Stay in my lane” Patel* is heading the FBI
- reddozen 7mo agoyou mean best selling children's book author Kash Patel who is desperately trying to scrub the internet of his music video[0] revising the Jan 6 insurrection [0] https://youtu.be/TPF_e2E5F74 https://youtu.be/TPF_e2E5F74
- EdwardDiego 7mo agoWhat the actual hell did I just listen to. I really hope those kids were paid decently at this.
- hmokiguess 7mo agoWas he running openclaw on his unpenetrable system by any chance?
- paxys 7mo ago[flagged]
- root_axis 7mo agoDoesn't gmail opt people into 2fa automatically?
- throwawa1 7mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- DSingularity 7mo ago[flagged]
- 0xbadcafebee 7mo agoNothing anti-semitic about pointing out close ties between political allies. Like how Jared Kushner's family is so close with Netanyahu he slept in Jared's bed. If anything it's patriotic & pro-Israel.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- fbilol 7mo ago[flagged]
- OhMeadhbh 7mo agoCertainly the FBI and GMail having gaps in their operational information security isn't news.
- bloppe 7mo agoI read the headline and first thought was seriously, that's it? Surely this is one of the least concerning things about the administration
- buttersicle 7mo agoDo you think the FBI manages his personal email? Kind of defeats the purpose of it being a personal email don't you think?
- michaelmrose 7mo agoThe FBI does because he is included in "the FBI"
- PilotJeff 7mo agoBRING IT ON
- mjmsmith 7mo ago"Iran, if you're listening..."
- throwawaysoxjje 7mo agoBut his emails!
- pugchat 7mo ago[dead]
- lern_too_spel 7mo agoThis is the end of his high profile bureaucrat career. Inevitably, something will show up in the emails that will get airplay as embarrassing to Trump, and Trump will just say that he should have protected his password better and ask for his resignation. He doesn't have a face for Fox News, so he'll have to try to parlay his past closeness with the administration for lobbyist money, but if he gets shunned by the people left in the administration, he's got to go back to his public defender job.
- rixed 7mo agoThis is quite misleading and partisan to present this as "FBI director's personal email" when the emails far predate his current role. If I had downloaded those emails, which I haven't because I know of no website that archives the internet, and if I had read them, which I haven't because that would be a breach of someone's privacy, then certainly I would have figured out that it contains no spicy state secrets. But why spend one hour assessing an information when you can get clicks by suggesting something bigger? Those supposedly Iranian hackers surely know how to hack the western media to get attention. I found it actually more informative to read on the sad history of the Dena, the ship whose victims this leak was dedicated to, so it's not been a complete waste of time.
- Ms-J 7mo agoThis is great. It couldn't happen to a more corrupt person and organization! The Handala group has promised even more. Get it while it's hot!
- Ms-J 7mo agoReal link from Handala (dead): https://handala-team.to/kash-patel-current-director-of-the-fbi-hacked/ https://handala-team.to/kash-patel-current-director-of-the-f... Archive: https://archive.ph/ILFFH https://archive.ph/ILFFH Download: https://link.storjshare.io/raw/jxoxwyp7qosgdwldereecudqpbva/poc/patelkpp@gmail.com.zip https://link.storjshare.io/raw/jxoxwyp7qosgdwldereecudqpbva/... Password: handala
- Razengan 7mo agoOh a while ago everything bad that happened to or in the US was the fault of Russians, now I guess it's gonna be Iranians.
- deringeorge2 7mo ago[dead]
- phtrivier 7mo agoI'd feel obliged to add some "but, her emails..." reference. But it feels million years away. It's interesting to wonder how you get out of a spiral of incompetence and border-line (to be polite) corrumption at the highest level. Putting those people in charge was quick ; sure, a future administration could put them out quickly enough ; but how long will there be decently skilled people willing to take those positions ? How long until the only ones who want to put their toes in the swamp are those who really enjoy the mud ? Put differently: can a liberal democracy organize a "just" version of a purge ?
- edg5000 7mo agoWe'd have to look at the longest-running democracies and observe how they handled periodic refactorings
- alchemism 7mo agoWell….they tended to collapse after a couple centuries.
- kingleopold 7mo ago[flagged]
- mpalmer 7mo agoThe quotee would be surprised to see how little voting is being done by the people receiving the largesse in the last 20 years. Not to mention how little voters had to do with the decisions which caused the deficit to rise the most. The Iraq war, poor handling of COVID, tax cuts for the wealthy.
- Bender 7mo agoIran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email Perhaps a little embarrassing related to communications security but come on, of all the people's email to grab they had to grab one of the most boring individuals? Ice hokey, cigars, classic cars...? Is that taboo in Iran? It is not taboo in the USA. Be careful Iran. The country you are targeting know how to use AI and can make ultra realistic videos and images of your leaders doing unspeakable things and upload them to decentralized platforms. Such things can not be erased from the internet.
- KnuthIsGod 7mo agoI wonder if the Nazi cabinet was as bizarre as the current America cabinet...
- Teknomadix 7mo agoIranian. Not bloody likely! Try Israeli-tied propagandists. Poke the hornets nest much?
- totetsu 7mo agoAren't most exploits that get used, shared through black markets anyway? So Saying Xcountry-linked hackers, is just saying who ponied up the bitcoin to pay for the attack?
- vcryan 7mo agoThis is one of the risks of dating a Mossad agent.
- WhereIsTheTruth 7mo agoI can't help but interpret these stories as psyops
- gsibble 7mo agoJFC. This does not belong on HN. Look at the discussion. Nothing but politics.
- gigatexal 7mo agoIt’s an administration filled with incompetent fools whose only expertise is in grifting. This hack of his emails is hilarious, though. And it made my day.
- natas 7mo agoprobably got simswapped, but personal emails should hold no work-related information, so this is not a huge deal is it?