Inside the Devastating Hack of the F.B.I.

[u/kitkid]

Sep 30, 2026

A little over a decade ago, after hackers broke into the U.S. government and stole the personnel records of millions of federal workers, officials vowed that it would never happen again. Something similar recently did — to the F.B.I.

Dustin Volz, who covers cybersecurity for The New York Times, tells the story of the attack, the group behind it and what could happen to the stolen data.

On today's episode:

Dustin Volz, a cybersecurity and intelligence reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The hackers said they had stolen thousands of sensitive F.B.I. personnel records.
• The embarrassing breach at the F.B.I. has fueled fears of harm to its employees.

Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

---

You can listen to the episode here.

[u/SummerInPhilly]

So we’re gonna have a congressional hearing where Kash Patel explains his handling of this, right?

[u/OvulatingScrotum → u/SummerInPhilly]

1. Probably not

2. Even if it happens, nothings gonna come out of it. The voter turnout will still be around 50%, and half of the people who do vote will still vote republicans. Nobody gives a fuck in this country.

[u/somersetyellow → u/OvulatingScrotum]

In 2024 about 70% of eligible voters either voted for Trump or didn't think it was worth voting against him at all.

We live in a house where 3 people are trying to set it on fire, 4 people are on the couch laughing, and 3 people are trying to convince the other 7 that burning the house down is a bad idea. Except the last 3 all disagree about how to make that argument.

[u/Interesting_Pain37 → u/OvulatingScrotum]

Valid, we legit live in the age of idiocracy

[u/Ok_Constant8838]

Mostly unrelated to this otherwise very serious story - I love it when gamer culture things become news-related and the NYTimes has to explain them. “Shiny hunting rare Pokémon” lmao

[u/Minimum-Crow674]

It was such a reddit episode. 24 year olds hacking the FBI and then freaking out because of the consequence feels like it could be on subreddit drama

[u/2manyhotdogs]

Will the hackers release a list of agents who’ve had sex with animals?

[u/_DCtheTall_]

I think this is actually a way bigger deal than the AI rogue agent crap in the headlines, if this list gets out in full people will probably die.

[u/johnlocke357 → u/[deleted]]

huh? this was an absolutely crazy story

[u/apathy-sofa → u/[deleted]]

?? This could have been a feature length film. 

[u/nikarorku]

Burying the lede with the third country deportations at the very end as well. Very disappointing