Handala leak of FBI director’s emails downplayed

The FBI has emphasized that only historical details and no government information had been exposed following the compromise of the personal email account of its director Kash Patel by the Iran-backed hacktivist operation Handala, which had leaked over 300 emails and photos from the account in retaliation for the U.S.'s recent seizure of its websites, reports NBC News.

"The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patels personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity," said an FBI spokesperson. Analysis of the data exposed by Handala, which targeted leading U.S. medical tech supplier Stryker earlier this month, revealed emails prior to Patel's work under the Trump administration, most of which were from 2010 to 2012. Such findings were noted by Sublime Security's Alex Orleans to indicate that the Iranians opted to strategically time the release of data it had stolen in a breach before the war.

"Given recent controversies surrounding Patel, I expect the Iranians would've chosen to release significantly more contemporary and potentially embarrassing content if they had a recently open line of access as opposed to something they had on the shelf," said Orleans.