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

About this episode

<p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Guest: <strong>Dustin Volz</strong>, a cybersecurity and intelligence reporter for The New York Times.</p><p>Background reading:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>The hackers said they had stolen <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/us/politics/fbi-hack-shinyhunters-data.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">thousands of sensitive F.B.I. personnel records</a>.</li><li>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/us/politics/fbi-shinyhunters-damage.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">embarrassing breach at the F.B.I. has fueled fears</a> of harm to its employees.</li></ul><p>Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press</p> <p><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily"><strong>nytimes.com/thedaily</strong></a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p><p> </p><p>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.</p></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>