"Hacker Claims Breach of FBI's Critical Infrastructure Portal"

A hacker claims to have posed as the CEO of a financial institution and gained access to InfraGard's database of over 80,000 members. InfraGard is an outreach program run by the FBI that shares sensitive information on national security and cybersecurity threats with public officials and private sector actors operating critical infrastructure in the US. The hacker has posted samples allegedly from the database to an online forum popular with cybercriminals, claiming they were asking $50,000 for the entire database. The hacker also states that the data contains no Social Security numbers or birth dates. While the database has fields for that information, InfraGard's security-conscious users had left them blank. They claim to have been messaging InfraGard members as the CEO of the financial institution in order to obtain more personal information. The FBI has not explained how the hacker managed to get approved for the InfraGard membership. According to independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs, who broke the story, when applying for InfraGard membership in November, the hacker included a contact email address that they controlled as well as the CEO's real mobile phone number. InfraGard consists of business leaders, Information Technology (IT) professionals, military, state and local law enforcement, and government officials who oversee the safety of the electrical grid, transportation, healthcare, pipelines, nuclear reactors, the defense industry, and more. This article continues to discuss a hacker claiming to have breached InfraGard's database.

AP News reports "Hacker Claims Breach of FBI's Critical Infrastructure Portal"