Pro-Palestine hacker leaks contact details of 20,000 FBI staff

A hacker has leaked thousands of FBI employees' names, job titles and contact details under the message #FreePalestine.

2 min read

10 February, 2016

The details were obtained when the hacker 'tricked' a department representative into giving access [Getty]

Personal information of more than 20,000 FBI employees has been leaked via a Twitter account, allegedly linked to the same hackers who shut down Sony and Microsoft.

It comes a day after the hacker posted a database online with the details of over 9,000 US government employees from another department.

Twitter user @Dotgovs released a link containing the names and contact details in a tweet which ended with #FreePalestine.

Among the personalities were special agents, task force officers, field supervisors and other members of the security organisation, according to Daily Dot.

The hacker supposedly revealed his intention to leak the document prior to doing so and shared the details with website, Motherboard who verified the information was legitimate.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Justice told Motherboard that they are "looking into the unauthorised access of a system operated by one of its components containing employee contact information".

Staff members from the Department of Homeland Security were also affected with 9,355 officers mentioned in the preliminary 'online dump'.

The hacker then released the details of 20,000 FBI agents 24 hours later, with a message reading: "This is for Palestine, Ramallah, West Bank, Gaza, this is for the child that is searching for an answer".

The hacker released the details of 20,000 FBI agents 24 hours later, with a message reading: 'This is for Palestine, Ramallah, West Bank, Gaza, this is for the child that is searching for an answer'

The details were obtained when the hacker "tricked" a department representative into giving him access to the internal portal.

US government employees have been targeted by online 'hacktivists' in recent years.

CIA director, John Brennan, US spy chief, James Clapper and a White House official are among some of the few who have been affected.

"This is not one hack. This is an ongoing hack against the United States government, whether it's from one or more actors is unknown," information and security expert, Michael Adams told Motherboard.