Did a hacker really pwn the FBI, US Homeland Security and the DoJ?

My Twitter feed's blowing up! My dad's calling about it because even the New York Times is writing about it. The FBI, the US Dept of Homeland Security and the Dept of Justice all got hacked over the weekend? What the hell, man? Uh-huh. On Sunday, a mystery hacker claimed to have details on more than 29,000 employees of the …

[ecofeco]

Small beer

Compared to the huge hack last year of the US gov, this doesn't seem very significant.

[oldcoder]

Re: Small beer

Yet.

The problem could explode if it turns out they didn't even detect the failure...

And that has been known to happen before. As I recall at the beginning of the OPM fiasco it was only some 5000 identities taken, but nothing sensitive... Then 100,000 ... and finally 5 million+ with all privacy information taken.

Same beginning.. Downplayed issue...

[Mark 85]

Re: Small beer

Not detected? Not verified on what was looked at? Or do they know and are lying? Given what I've seen my government do, this could be any one the three or a bit of each.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Small beer

Compared to the huge hack they had last year, anything will seem insignificant.

Might as well put everyone's passwords on post it notes and leave them in the public cafeteria at this stage.

[Ole Juul]

hotshot

fishing for a good brag

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: hotshot

Most likely.

If it's just data from one person's e-mail account, chances are half of it is internal stuff like holiday schedules and memos on how to order office supplies, and the other half are attached holiday snaps and lolcats. OTOH a staggering number of people use their e-mail as personal storage system, so there just might be the odd really interesting document in there. Depends un whose account was compromised - someone who handles sensitive stuff on a daily basis or the guy who spends most of his time organising the softball team.

Right now this feels pretty much like https://xkcd.com/932/

[wheelbearing]

Re: hotshot

Large amounts of low level background information could be incredibly useful to "the other side" (or sides really) planning to nab more critical stuff. It's the reverse of "never mind the quality, feel the width". Missus.

[Tom 13]

Re: Depends un whose account was compromised

And assumes an account was compromised as opposed to just scraping the public web sites and claiming one was.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fair's Fair

If the US Gov't has my personal information (and I'm not even a US citizen!) then it's only fair that I should have the personal information of the US Gov't.

[lansalot]

Yawn.. Call me when it's Steven Avery and aliens...

[2460 Something]

He would have released the 'X-Files' but the aliens abducted him when they found out.

[Stevie]

Bah!

In other news, no indication of any breach in Ms Clinton's "insecure" mail server.

[tom dial]

So far (past Noon on 9 February) it appear the information is comparable to what I, as a federal government employee, was told any member of the public could request, and obtain. Agencies were authorized to charge a fee approximating the actual cost of duplicating and providing the data, and the data did not include email address or telephone number, but it did include GS pay level.

Unless there is a good deal more to this, it really does not amount to much.