ShinyHunters hacker group’s site goes offline after its deadline to the FBI expires

The website of the ShinyHunters hacker group, which claims it stole the personal and sensitive data of thousands of FBI agents, went offline on Wednesday, a day after the deadline the group had given the U.S. agency expired. As Reuters reports, it could not be determined why the site went offline, and ShinyHunters could not be reached for comment.

On September 22 the group told media outlets, including Reuters, that it had stolen data “on almost all FBI agents and people who have applied for jobs at the FBI”. According to Reuters reporting, analysis of a sample of the data showed it contained extensive personal identifying information, sensitive job-role data, as well as medical and psychiatric information.

The hackers said they targeted the FBI in reaction to a May 2026 agency notice which, according to them, misrepresented earlier actions. They gave the FBI a week to “correct or simply REMOVE” the notice, but it remains online. The group later said it did not intend to publish the stolen data and had fulfilled its aims.

The FBI said on September 23 that it was investigating the breach “actively and aggressively”, but on Wednesday declined to comment on whether it had taken action to take the hackers’ site offline. Brett Leatherman, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, called on the hackers in a video published on September 29 to contact the FBI “while the choice is still theirs”.

Meanwhile, Dutch police announced this week that on September 15 they had arrested a Dutch citizen in connection with the ShinyHunters investigation. The hacker group told Reuters the arrested person had “no connection” to them and mocked Dutch police as “incompetent”.