One of the alleged masterminds behind a major cyber attack on the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has reportedly been arrested in Jordan.
Saif al-Din Khader, understood to be a teenager, was detained on suspicion of being a leading member of the notorious hacking collective ShinyHunters.
The group claims to have stolen more than 2 terabytes of employee data from the FBI, having breached the US law enforcement agency’s job site.
The stolen data included sensitive information like phone numbers, home addresses and medical details of all bureau staff, according to ShinyHunters.
The FBI is yet to officially confirm the news of the latest arrest, which was first reported by Reuters.
In a statement, the FBI said it "continues to aggressively investigate the recent cyber incident allegedly involving ShinyHunters, having already worked with partners to arrest multiple subjects – and we will spare no resource in bringing each of the responsible individuals to justice.”
Sources told Reuters that Khader was cooperating with the FBI and global law enforcement agencies to locate other members of ShinyHunters.
Etay Maor, vice president of threat intelligence at cyber security firm CATO Networks said the FBI hack was “an unusually provocative move” in the ongoing contest between law enforcement and cybercrime groups.
"ShinyHunters has repeatedly demonstrated that it is more than a fixed set of people or infrastructure,” he told The Independent.
“It is a resilient criminal brand that has survived takedowns, arrests, and forum seizures by evolving its methods and attracting new operators.”
Other security researchers have noted that ShinyHunters hackers have targeted organisations across industries, including healthcare, financial services and law enforcement.
Jade Brown, a researcher at the cyber security firm Bitdefender, described them as a “no-holds barred criminal enterprise” in a recent threat report.
Last week, Dutch police said another suspected member of ShinyHunters had been arrested in Amsterdam.
The 24-year-old is also suspected of attempted incitement to commit two murders, according to police.
“The ShinyHunters group is responsible for a large number of national and international victims,” said Stan Duijf, who leads Dutch investigations into cyber crime.
"It is good that we have been able to arrest a suspect in the investigation into this group."
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