Handala, a pro-Iranian hacking group, claimed Friday that it hacked FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal account and made public what it said were years-old photographs and documents. In a message it posted, the group said Patel would “find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims,” and it accompanied that claim with a set of images including pictures of Patel standing beside an antique sports car and another image with a cigar. The group also said it was making available downloads of emails and other records from the account, which it said appeared to relate to Patel’s personal travels and business from more than 10 years ago.
The FBI acknowledged concern about the activity involving Patel’s personal email. In a statement, the bureau said it was aware of “malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information” and that it had “taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks” tied to the activity. The FBI said the information at issue was “historical in nature” and “involves no government information,” and it did not identify the hackers it believed were responsible.
Handala did not say when the breach it claimed might have occurred. The AP report noted that it was not clear when the hack claimed by Handala may have happened, and it said news reports from December 2024—before Patel was confirmed as director—stated Patel had been informed by the FBI that he had been targeted as part of an Iranian hack.
The group is described by AP as pro-Iranian and pro-Palestinian, and it has previously claimed credit for disrupting systems at Stryker, a medical technology company based in Michigan. In that earlier case, Handala said the action was retaliation for suspected U.S. strikes that killed Iranian schoolchildren, AP said, describing it as an example of proxy groups that carry out cyber attacks on behalf of Iran.
The FBI said the Trump administration is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification of members of the Handala hacking group. The bureau described Handala as an entity that “has frequently targeted U.S. government officials.”
Associated Press writer David Klepper contributed to this report.