U.S. federal investigators pursuing the ShinyHunters hacking group that recently stole highly sensitive data from the FBI have identified executives at two different ransomware negotiation firms who maintained unusually close relations with the extortion group, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Sources close to the investigation say one of the executives in the United States even helped ShinyHunters operate a website that pressured victims into paying a ransom.
Hackers aligned with ShinyHunters have claimed credit for dozens of major data breaches since 2019, when the group was primarily operated by cybercriminals living in France. As those original members were arrested or jailed one by one, control over the ShinyHunters brand eventually passed to “Rey,” identified last year as a teenage hacker from Amman, Jordan. According to the FBI, ShinyHunters has extorted more than $70 million from victims so far this year.
In late September, ShinyHunters hacked the FBI recruitment website fbijobs.gov and taunted the agency by threatening to publish the stolen files, which reportedly included medical and psychological records, Social Security numbers and home addresses, and information about each employee’s unit and specialization.
The FBI jobs site hack has prompted the agency to move with uncommon speed to arrest, detain and question people who had any communications with Rey or other ShinyHunters suspects. Reuters reported on October 3 that Rey had been detained by Jordanian authorities and was cooperating with the FBI.
Rey was able to assume control over the hacking group because one of its alleged senior members had just been nabbed. On the evening of September 15, 2026, authorities in the Netherlands arrested convicted hacker and ShinyHunters suspect Pepijn van der Stap. Dutch police reportedly used flash-bang grenades in an effort to stun and apprehend Van der Stap as he was logged in to various online accounts.
According to a source close to the investigation, the authorities arrested Van der Stap while he was using his Signal instant messaging account, which allowed them to read recent communications with frequent contacts — including ransomware negotiators based in Canada and the United States.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the matter told KrebsOnSecurity that Van der Stap’s messages were the key to unraveling a murder-for-hire plot that emerged immediately following his arrest. The Dutch news outlet RTL reported last month the two murders were allegedly to be committed abroad, and that there are indications Van der Stap gave the order for the attacks (there is no indication those orders were ever carried out).
On October 9, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that the FBI arrested a 54-year-old Canadian cybersecurity executive named Edward Dubrovsky in connection with the ShinyHunters investigation. Dubrovsky, who recently published a book on handling cyber extortion that recommended always engaging with the hackers, was charged with threatening to disclose stolen or hacked data and interfering with interstate commerce through extortion, according to court records. Politico reports prosecutors have asked that Dubrovsky remain in custody pending trial, and that records related to his case remain under seal.
A source close to the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity that Van der Stap’s Signal messages showed he had frequent conversations with Mr. Dubrovsky and with at least one executive at a large U.S.-based consulting firm, and that these executives often knew the details about new ShinyHunters victims before the victims themselves had even learned of the breach.
That source shared another potentially explosive finding by federal investigators: the Dutch hacker’s chats showed Mr. Dubrovsky knew ShinyHunters had stolen highly sensitive data from FBI servers, and that he never informed the bureau of the data breach prior to ShinyHunters threatening on Twitter/X to publish the agency’s deeply personal personnel files.
KrebsOnSecurity has learned from two sources close to the ShinyHunters probe that FBI investigators believe at least one executive at a U.S.-based consulting firm played an active role in operating the now-defunct ShinyHunters victim extortion website “shinywire[.]com.” KrebsOnSecurity is not naming the U.S. company or the suspected executive(s) for now because they have not yet been charged with a crime, but it is a prestigious firm with more than 1,000 associates.
A section of the homepage for the now-defunct Shinywire website.
The Shinywire website was active from approximately May 3, 2026 until October 16 and had entries for nearly 100 organizations hacked by ShinyHunters. Each entry urged victims to engage with the cybercrime group and discuss terms for payment. The pages also included samples of stolen files and promised those files would be published online if the victim ignored their demands.
The following screenshot shows a cached portion of the Shinywire extortion page for Intuitive Surgical, an American medical technology company that was breached in March 2026 after an employee fell for a targeted phishing email.
The Shinywire website, as indexed by urlscan.io. This listing is an extortion demand targeting Intuitive Surgical, an American medical technology company breached in March 2026 by a targeted phishing email attack that compromised an employee’s credentials.
Victim organizations that refused to engage or negotiate after seven days would find all of their stolen data published on the ShinyHunters victim shaming blog (a website that is only reachable via the anonymity network Tor).
In a story published October 15, The Globe and Mail wrote that a few months before Edward Dubrovsky was arrested by the FBI, the Canadian cybersecurity executive alleged in court documents he had become collateral damage in a campaign by a former business partner to “destroy” another industry executive.
The story noted that Dubrovsky filed the lawsuit in Ontario this year against Daniel Tobok, the former chief executive of Cypfer, a cybersecurity firm founded in Toronto with offices in the U.S., Britain, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, and Mexico. The two first became business partners in 2017 and later developed Cypfer together, where Mr. Dubrovsky was a managing partner and chief operating officer. But by 2024, the two had a falling out, with Dubrovsky accusing Tobok of gradually excluding him from business matters and making “increasingly capricious business decisions.”
Mr. Tobok reportedly denied the allegations and filed a counterclaim, accusing Mr. Dubrovsky of accessing confidential information and unfairly competing with Cypfer through work at another firm called CyberSteward Inc. He also said Mr. Dubrovsky has misrepresented himself as a Cypfer founder, and is not a shareholder.
According to interviews with several former colleagues of Mr. Tobok, as far back as eight years ago he was known to ransomware purveyors by a particular nickname: Ghostbyte. In 2018, a Canadian company was hacked by Dharma, a prolific Russian-language ransomware affiliate program that first surfaced in 2016. The victim company told the Dharma ransomware representative they were leaning toward paying because some of the files were unrecoverable after being locked, but that they needed a better guarantee that Dharma would keep their word if paid.
A redacted copy of the Dharma rep’s reply is pictured below, and it shows the ransomware group urged the victim to contact a person at a Canadian IT firm that helps companies seeking such guarantees. The Dharma rep recommended the victim contact the email address ghostbyte@tutanota.com.
“If you want guarantees, you can write to the IT company,” the Dharma reply advised. “Take the phone and negotiate with them. This IT company often solves such problems in Canada. You can contact them and sign a contract for services. You’ll still have to pay.”
An email reply from the Dharma ransomware group to a victim, recommending they contact an email address that is connected to Mr. Tobok.
It’s unclear if Mr. Tobok ever used that Ghostbyte address offered by the Dharma representative, and he has not responded to multiple requests for comment. However, the breach tracking service Constella Intelligence finds an email address Mr. Tobok has frequently used — dtobok@me.com — is associated with two online accounts where the chosen username was “ghostbyte,” including a Snapchat account.
Incidentally, Constella also finds the Dharma rep’s email address luckygoodlucky@tuta.io is associated with a cryptocurrency address that processed 38 transactions totaling 43 bitcoin, ~$3.5 million at today’s value (the most recent transaction for this wallet is dated February 2019).
In a statement shared on October 14, Cypfer said the company’s business does not include making or facilitating ransomware payments, and that Cypfer learned of Dubrovsky’s arrest when the news first broke in the media.
“We had no prior knowledge of Mr. Dubrovsky’s arrest,” a spokesperson told KrebsOnSecurity via email. “CYPFER has not received any outreach from law enforcement and, to our knowledge, is not the target of any law enforcement investigation.”
The statement said CyberSteward and Cypfer are separate companies with no officers, directors or employees in common, and that Cypfer was recently acquired by the Apros Group, a holding company led by Jason Hogg, a former FBI special agent and former CEO of Aon Cyber Solutions Group. In 2020, Aon aquired Cytelligence, a security consulting firm where Mr. Tobok was founder and CEO and Mr. Dubrovsky was a managing partner.
It is not illegal in the United States to pay hackers for an encryption key to unlock servers infected with ransomware, or in exchange for a promise to delete any stolen files and refrain from publishing them online. While victim organizations can land in legal hot water if they pay a ransom to a group that is sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, ShinyHunters is not among the ransomware groups currently sanctioned by the United States or by any other government.
Experts say ransomware victims are typically directed by their insurance provider to work with a specific incident response firm. But not all cyber forensics and breach response companies will agree to facilitate payments to ransomware groups on behalf of their clients. As a result, once victim firms make a decision to pay, the firms that eschew rewarding extortionists are invariably replaced by companies that have no such qualms.
In December 2024, ShinyHunters began extorting the education technology company PowerSchool, stealing private information on 62 million students and 9.5 million teachers in the U.S. and Canada. PowerSchool reportedly paid a $2.85 million ransom demand, and a “frequently asked questions” statement (PDF) about the breach says PowerSchool was assisted in that effort by CyberSteward (ShinyHunters affiliate Matthew Lane, 20, of Sterling, Mass., was sentenced in November 2025 to four years in prison for his admitted role in the PowerSchool hack).
But that ransom payment did not stop future extortion attempts using the same stolen data. By May 2025, individual school districts were reportedly receiving separate ransom demands using samples of the same stolen files. While nobody has alleged ShinyHunters was behind the second wave of extortion against PowerSchool users, the incident drives home the reality that there is no technical way to verify the threat actors have deleted the stolen data as promised, or prevent others from abusing the same records.
A number of leading cyber incident response firms, including Coveware and Unit 221B, have consistently warned victims against paying ShinyHunters, noting that “destroyed” victim data is often kept, resold or used to extort the company’s clients directly later on.
The FBI echoed those sentiments in an alert on May 15, 2026 advising victims against paying the ShinyHunters group. Meanwhile, ShinyHunters members have been harassing and threatening employees at Coveware and Unit 221B for offering this advice.
The following screenshots show just how annoyed the ShinyHunters leaders were with Coveware’s relentless advice against paying the group. The first image is from a conversation on May 6, 2026 that took place between the group’s main account on Telegram and a co-conspirator. In that chat, snippets of which were shared with KrebsOnSecurity by a trusted source, ShinyHunters complained that Coveware was harming the group’s payment rates.
The operator of the ShinyHunters account on Telegram speaking privately with a co-conspirator and complaining that Coveware was harming their business.
“Go on my website, majority of those companies would’ve paid if it weren’t for Coveware giving them misinformation,” the ShinyHunters account wrote. “Someone (100% Coveware) is going out of their way to make sure i am not paid.”
In another conversation on April 11, 2026, the ShinyHunters Telegram account privately said they were trying to “eliminate the problem,” which they said was Coveware. Coveware declined to comment for this story.
“I’m sure the company will pay but in this specific case I am aware of Coveware and their involvement, and I’ve probably been not getting a lot of other negotiations mostly likely because Coveware keeps getting involved,” the ShinyHunters account bemoaned.
The operator of the ShinyHunters account on Telegram telling a co-conspirator they were “trying to eliminate the problem,” which they identified as Coveware advising victims not to pay the cybercrime group.
Mark Camillo is chief executive at CyberAcuView, an industry group founded in 2021 by a consortium of major cyber insurance carriers. Camillo said some firms charge a flat retainer fee, while those that specialize in helping companies negotiate a ransom payment tend to charge a percentage of the total ransom amount paid.
That latter dynamic, he said, is an inherent conflict of interest, as the negotiator has every incentive to make things more favorable to the attackers because they are financially incentivized to negotiate and pay out, and to not negotiate down on the price.
“It has come to the industry’s attention that many of the ransomware payers charge a percentage of the final payment which may or may not be disclosed,” Camillo said. “This makes no sense if they are also the negotiator. There needs to be more transparency in the process as no one in the ecosystem should be profiting purely on the size of the ransomware transaction or payment itself.”
Camillo said the firms doing this work would argue the fees are needed because there may be unexpectedly higher costs to secure larger quantities of cryptocurrency or more risk carrying the float, and because cryptocurrency exchanges may charge higher fees for high risk transactions.
“There definitely needs to be more visibility around the transaction and clarity on the increasing value of the crypto and the exchange’s percent in the transaction to get to the bottom of this and remove any misaligned incentives,” he said.
In recent months, the U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted a number of ransomware negotiators alleged to have conspired with cybercriminals to defraud their clients. On October 7, the DOJ charged MonsterCloud CEO Zohar Pinhasi, 50, with wire fraud and conspiracy for allegedly charging customers to remediate ransomware attacks without paying the hackers. According to charging documents, Pinhasi secretly went behind his customers’ backs and paid hackers anyway, paying ransomware groups $8 million while charging customers $19 million.
In July, Angelo Martino, a 41-year-old ransomware negotiator from Land O’Lakes, Florida, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for conspiring with the Blackcat/ALPHV ransomware group to extort multiple victims. According to the DOJ, Martino was paid by BlackCat attackers to provide confidential information about the negotiating position and strategy of his employer’s clients and enable the ransomware actors to maximize the ransoms paid by the victims.
ShinyHunters is the focus of a global FBI investigation, and the crackdown has led to the October 8 arrest of a Canadian ransomware negotiator who now faces extortion charges. Reuters reported the arrest, citing court documents, prison records and a person familiar with the case. The group has also stolen information about FBI employees.
Court documents filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which includes Philadelphia, accuse the defendant of conspiring to threaten the confidentiality of information to extort money and of interfering with commerce.
“A Canadian ransomware negotiator was arrested Thursday and faces unspecified extortion charges, according to court documents, prison records and a person familiar with the matter, as the FBI cracks down on a hacking group that stole information about its employees.” Reuters states. “Edward Dubrovsky faces charges of conspiracy to “threaten to impair the confidentiality of information with intent to extort money” and “interference with commerce,” according to court documents, opens new tab filed with the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which covers Philadelphia.”
Krebs on Security reports that the second charge involves threats. The main criminal complaint remains sealed, so the details of the defendant’s alleged role are not yet public.
The records spell the last name two ways, Dobrovsky or Dobrosky, and they don’t list an age, a profession or an employer. A person briefed on the matter told Reuters the defendant is Edward Dubrovsky, a Canadian cybersecurity executive. Reuters couldn’t even settle the spelling, which tells you how early this is.
“Federal court records show that on October 8, an Edward Dobrovsky (note the slight misspelling of the last name) was arrested in Pennsylvania on cyber extortion and conspiracy charges.” states the report. “Several of those documents — including the core complaint — are now sealed. But a handful of them were indexed at Courtlistener.com, including a summary of the complaint, which charges the defendant with “conspiracy to threaten to impair the confidentiality of information with the intent to extort money,” and “interference with commerce by threats.””
Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia didn’t return repeated messages about the discrepancies. Reuters also couldn’t reach Dubrovsky, his lawyers, or CyberSteward, the company named on his LinkedIn profile. According to Krebs, the available records showed no attorney yet.
“An online search reveals the Cyber Risk Summit was held at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel between Oct. 5 and Oct. 7. The conference had several sponsors, but according to the summit’s website its biggest sponsor was a Canadian security company called Cypfer.” states Krebs. “According to LinkedIn, one of Cypfer’s “ex-founders” was Edward Dubrovsky, who is now associated with another Canadian security firm and sponsor called CyberSteward. In a post to LinkedIn approximately one month ago, Dubrovsky said he had plans to attend the Cyber Risk Summit with the rest of the CyberSteward team.”
CyberSteward advertises itself as a specialist in threat actor engagement, cyber extortions, complex negotiations and settlement facilitation. On LinkedIn, Dubrovsky presents himself as an expert in negotiating ransom payments with cybercriminals. SecurityWeek notes he’s also the author of a book on responding to cyber extortion.
Politico and Krebs reported the arrest first. Krebs says he was in Philadelphia for a cyber insurance conference. Federal prison records show a man with his name detained at a federal detention center in the city.
ShinyHunters is the backdrop. Last month the group claimed it had stolen information on nearly every FBI employee, and it said it got into the bureau’s jobs website and other systems in response to an FBI report earlier this year warning about its activity. FBI blamed the intrusion on a contractor’s failure to patch vulnerable Oracle PeopleSoft software.
When Reuters asked about the arrest, the FBI pointed to a statement from Director Kash Patel and declined further comment.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) October 9, 2026
Our agents in the field have arrested another suspected co-conspirator of the ShinyHunters group – the group believed to be responsible for the recent https://t.co/RG0D4I5KFS incident, which occurred on a platform managed by a third-party vendor.
This is the latest arrest…
Patel described the arrest as the latest in a series of actions against ShinyHunters over just a few days. According to SecurityWeek, he said the FBI will continue working to disrupt the remaining network. This is the third suspected arrest linked to ShinyHunters in recent weeks, following one in the Netherlands on September 15 and another in Jordan on September 28.
The case has also moved to another court. A notice filed on October 9 transferred it to the Eastern District of Texas, where sources told Krebs on Security the FBI’s ShinyHunters investigation is focused.
However, authorities have not publicly explained what the defendant allegedly did. Reuters reports that the charges have not been specified, and the main complaint remains sealed. Krebs on Security also reports, citing sources, that executives at other ransomware negotiation firms could face charges. The FBI says ShinyHunters has extorted more than $70 million this year.
The latest arrest brings the number of suspected ShinyHunters members detained in recent weeks to three. On September 15, authorities arrested a suspected member in the Netherlands. A second alleged key member was reportedly arrested in Jordan on September 28 and is said to be cooperating with the FBI.
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Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday arrested an executive at a Canadian cybersecurity firm in connection with an investigation into the ShinyHunters hacking group that recently relieved the FBI of sensitive data on thousands of agents, multiple sources tell KrebsOnSecurity.
The New York Times reported today that the FBI has arrested a Canadian man in Pennsylvania on suspicion of assisting ShinyHunters. The Times story did not identify the man, nor did a statement on Twitter/X about the arrest from FBI Director Kash Patel.
One source close to the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity the Canadian person arrested this week was visiting Pennsylvania for a cyber insurance conference, and that the suspect’s company specialized in handling ransomware negotiations with cybercrime groups. Another shared that control over the ShinyHunters investigation has been centralized at an FBI field office in Texas.
An online search reveals the Cyber Risk Summit was held at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel between Oct. 5 and Oct. 7. The conference had several sponsors, but according to the summit’s website its biggest sponsor was a Canadian security company called Cypfer.
According to LinkedIn, one of Cypfer’s “ex-founders” was Edward Dubrovsky, who is now associated with another Canadian security firm and sponsor called CyberSteward. In a post to LinkedIn approximately one month ago, Dubrovsky said he had plans to attend the Cyber Risk Summit with the rest of the CyberSteward team.
[Update: Oct. 10, 9:58 a.m. ET: A spokesperson for Cypfer said Dubrovsky was not a founder or co-founder as his LinkedIn profile claims, but instead served as a managing director before resigning in December 2025].
Edward Dubrovsky’s LinkedIn profile.
“Looking forward to continuing conversations around strategy & compliant driven coercive (ransomware, extortion) advisory, negotiations and settlement services that are global and truly agnostic,” Dubrovsky wrote.
Federal court records show that on October 8, an Edward Dobrovsky (note the slight misspelling of the last name) was arrested in Pennsylvania on cyber extortion and conspiracy charges. Several of those documents — including the core complaint — are now sealed. But a handful of them were indexed at Courtlistener.com, including a summary of the complaint, which charges the defendant with “conspiracy to threaten to impair the confidentiality of information with the intent to extort money,” and “interference with commerce by threats.”
Image: Courtlistener.com
The inmate locator at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website reports that a 54-year-old Edward Dubrovsky is currently being held at a federal facility in Philadelphia. But the court records indexed by CourtListener include a notice filed on October 9 that moved the case to the Eastern District of Texas, which sources say is now the epicenter of the FBI’s ShinyHunters investigation. The FBI declined to comment for this story.
Dubrovsky’s LinkedIn profile states he is the author of Cyber Extortion Strategic Response, a 252-page book that promises to “take readers beyond the ransom note and into the decisions that determine how an organization responds, recovers, and protects what matters.”
Edward Dubrovsky’s book, which centers on the intricacies of ransomware negotiations.
“At the heart of the book is a critical distinction: communicating with a criminal is not the same as negotiating a payment, and negotiating is not a commitment to pay,” reads an excerpt from the book’s listing on Amazon. “Engagement can serve other objectives, including testing claims, gathering information, creating time, and preserving options while the organization evaluates its next move.”
Mr. Dubrovsky could not be immediately reached for comment. KrebsOnSecurity also sought comment from other executives at CyberSteward, and will update this post in the event they respond. The available court records in Dubrovsky’s case show that he does not currently have an attorney and has yet to be appointed a public defender by the courts.
ShinyHunters typically uses phishing and stolen credentials to siphon data from corporate accounts at software-as-a-service companies, and then threatens to publish the stolen data online unless a ransom demand is paid. According to the FBI, the group has extorted more than $70 million from victims so far this year.
Sources tell KrebsOnSecurity the FBI has been poring over devices that were seized last month when the Dutch police arrested the convicted cybercriminal Pepijn van der Stap in connection with the ShinyHunters investigation, and that charges against principals at other companies that specialize in ransomware negotiation may be forthcoming.
Immediately after Van der Stap’s arrest, another member of ShinyHunters named “Rey” assumed control over the group and began taunting the FBI over data the group stole from the agency’s online recruitment portal, which included each’s person’s unit and specialization, as well as medical and psychiatric records.
Last week, Reuters reported that Rey — identified as a teenager named Saif Al-din Khader — had been detained and was cooperating with FBI investigators. On October 7, we detailed how Rey was apprehended as the cybercrime group allegedly sought to extort a navigation and digital aviation unit that was divested by Boeing in late 2025.
This is likely to be a fast-moving story. Updates will be noted along with timestamps.
A teenager from Amman, Jordan suspected of leading the prolific data theft and extortion group ShinyHunters has been detained and is reportedly cooperating with the FBI to identify other members of the hacking gang. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that the suspect, who uses the hacker handle “Rey,” was detained as ShinyHunters was in the process of extorting a business unit recently divested by the global aerospace company Boeing, which manufactures the fleet of planes used by the employer of Rey’s father — Royal Jordanian Airlines.
The logo for Jeppesen ForeFlight, a business unit divested last year by the aerospace firm Boeing.
On October 3, Reuters cited three unnamed sources saying a suspected ShinyHunters member in Amman named Saif Al-din Khader was detained by Jordanian authorities and was cooperating with the FBI. KrebsOnSecurity identified Rey as Khader in a November 2025 profile, in which the young man admitted working with multiple ransomware groups.
Rey was featured again in a September 28 exclusive about the Dutch police arresting 24-year-old convicted cybercriminal Pepijn van der Stap on suspicion of aiding in data thefts and extortions by ShinyHunters. The story noted that immediately following the Dutchman’s arrest on the evening of September 15, Rey assumed control over the ShinyHunters brand and boasted publicly about stealing highly sensitive data from the FBI and extorting the ransomware group Cl0p.
Rey taunted both the FBI and Cl0p with memes posted to his longtime account on Twitter/X, while simultaneously including images of the avatar used by Van Der Stap’s former hacker alias “Umbreon” in an apparent attempt to frame the Dutchman for both hacks.
A taunting meme uploaded to Twitter/X by Rey on Sept. 22. A giant sized version of the Pokemon character Umbreon can be seen in the bottom left.
As noted in our September 28 report, ShinyHunters gained access to the FBI site and other victims by exploiting a vulnerability (CVE-2026-35273) in PeopleSoft, a software-as-a-service platform from the tech giant Oracle that is broadly used by companies to manage hiring and human resources, benefits and payroll. Oracle quickly issued a fix for CVE-2026-35273, which ShinyHunters first began exploiting as a zero-day in June, and at the time Mandiant released web application firewall rules intended for organizations that couldn’t apply the security update quickly enough.
ShinyHunters told BleepingComputer in June that the original goal behind exploiting the PeopleSoft vulnerability was to breach the FBI’s own PeopleSoft database, but the hackers said those attacks were unsuccessful for some reason. In recent weeks, however, ShinyHunters turned to a well-known URL-encoding trick to bypass Mandiant’s suggested web application firewall rules.
In a report released Sept. 25, security experts at Mandiant and the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) confirmed that ShinyHunters had mass-exploited the PeopleSoft vulnerability to steal data from dozens of systems across a range of industries, including higher education, technology, healthcare, agriculture, transportation and government.
Reuters reported October 5 that the FBI has removed a contractor at Accenture over their failure to patch the FBI recruitment website hacked by ShinyHunters, which exposed sensitive data on more than 5,000 FBI personnel, including each’s person’s unit and specialization, as well as medical and psychiatric records.
According to two sources familiar with the ShinyHunters investigation, a navigation and digital aviation unit recently divested by the global aerospace company Boeing was among the victims that ShinyHunters was in the process of extorting when Rey was apprehended by Jordanian authorities.
Those sources said the FBI’s investigation into ShinyHunters gained renewed urgency with the group’s attempted extortion of the former Boeing unit, which allegedly included the theft of sensitive information that sources said could pose operational safety and security risks.
In a brief statement shared with KrebsOnSecurity, Boeing acknowledged the extortion attempts by ShinyHunters, and said the incident concerned data stolen from Jeppesen ForeFlight, a subsidiary that Boeing sold in November 2025 to the private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $10.55 billion.
“We are aware of claims by a threat actor regarding data allegedly associated with Boeing and our former subsidiary Jeppesen ForeFlight,” a Boeing spokesperson shared. “We are actively reviewing the matter with the Jeppesen ForeFlight team.”
A spokesperson for Jeppesen ForeFlight shared a written statement in response to questions, saying the company has seen no impact on their end. “Based on our investigation to date into this claim and proactive security posture, there was no impact to our operations or products.”
Rey’s alleged involvement in attempting to extort the former Boeing unit is noteworthy because there is strong evidence that his father works for Royal Jordanian Airlines, which is mostly controlled by the Jordanian government and operates its long-haul fleet on passenger planes built by Boeing. Rey claimed on Telegram in early 2025 that his father was an airline pilot, although that could not be independently confirmed.
However, as noted in our November 2025 profile of Rey, his family’s shared computer was at one point compromised by password-stealing malware, and the data collected by that malware clearly shows Rey’s father used the same credentials to log in at multiple online portals for Royal Jordanian Airlines employees.
Royal Jordanian Airlines has not yet responded to a request for comment. In advance of our September 28 story, KrebsOnSecurity once again emailed Rey’s father to seek comment and update him on his son’s alleged activities. Neither of the Khaders have responded. But just hours after that request was sent, Rey began deleting his various social media accounts, including the Twitter/X account he previously used to taunt the FBI, Cl0p, and other ShinyHunters victims.
Rey may have nixed many of his social media profiles, but his cybersecurity blog on GitHub somehow escaped the purge, and it shows that Rey was fixated on the leaders of the Cl0p ransomware group. In March 2026, Rey’s blog featured a lengthy post that identified two Russian men as the core developers and hackers behind Cl0p.
Rey’s blog on GitHub. This post doxes two Russian men as the core operators behind Cl0p, one of the oldest and most established ransomware groups still in operation today.
Meanwhile, news outlets in the Netherlands reported explosive new allegations leveled at Van der Stap, whose supposed personal transformation from convicted to reformed hacker has been widely covered in the tech news media. The Dutch daily RTL reported on Sept. 29 that investigators suspect Van der Stap tried to orchestrate at least two murders. According to RTL, the murders were allegedly to be committed abroad, and there are indications Van der Stap gave the order for these attacks.
Van der Stap was released from prison after serving the better part of a four year sentence for data theft and extortion activity that prosecutors said netted between €1.5 million and €2.7 million. In an interview with KrebsOnSecurity on September 9, Van der Stap described his new role as “offensive security lead” at the Dutch cybersecurity company Neo Security, saying the job involved probing client networks for security vulnerabilities.
Neo Security’s owner Benjamin Korper told Reuters he has hired an outside firm to investigate whether Van der Stap had hacked Neo Security or its customers, but that so far investigators have found no evidence he acted against his employer or clients. Korper said Dutch forensic investigators visited his office on September 15, the night Van der Stap was arrested in a dramatic police raid that reportedly involved flash bang grenades.
A screenshot of a Sept 16 story by the Dutch news outlet at5.nl, describing a police raid on Van Der Stap’s residence that reportedly used flash-bang grenades.
Prior to his first arrest in 2023, Van der Stap was working as a software engineer at the Amsterdam-based cybersecurity startup Hadrian, while volunteering at the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure (DIVD) — even as he was hacking into and extorting a number of large organizations.
When asked in a recent interview why anyone should believe the word of a self-described “reformed” cybercriminal who had so casually deceived countless friends, co-workers and journalists for years, Van der Stap replied that his work spoke for itself and there was nothing he could say that would convince his worst critics.
“You can throw a bunch of nice words at someone, but you can’t convince them if they don’t want to be convinced,” Van der Stap told KrebsOnSecurity on Sept. 9. “I’m doing what I can to repay victims, and that’s all I can do. If someone doesn’t want to believe me, then that’s on them.”
Cybercriminals aligned with ShinyHunters have been responsible for dozens of data breaches involving billions of stolen records, and breaches claimed by the group stretch back to at least 2019. But experts say the people recently operating behind the ShinyHunters name are not the same core members that populated the group in its early days, most of whom are French citizens who have been arrested (if not also imprisoned) on at least one prior occasion for alleged cybercrime activity.
More to the point, ShinyHunters has become something of a franchise. Think the Dread Pirate Roberts character in the 1980s cult movie classic “The Princess Bride,” only succession by death is replaced with succession by arrest, and there can be multiple simultaneous Dread Pirate Robertses. Sources close to the investigation say the FBI is focusing on a remaining handful of cybercriminal freelancers or affiliates who have been feeding the group stolen credentials to various software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms used by major companies in exchange for a cut of any data ransoms later paid by victims.
In the days after the news broke of Van der Stap’s arrest, a cybercrime-focused chat server on Telegram that was allegedly operated by Rey erupted with hot takes, with most participants heaping ridicule on the teenage hacker after he publicly backed down from threats against the FBI and Cl0p, and again when the ShinyHunters’s darknet website suddenly went offline. Several commentators accused Rey of resurrecting the ShinyHunters brand after its core members were rounded up in France, and making a mockery of the group’s name and reputation ever since.
“He bought the old forum PGP key and used it to make new Breachforum websites and Telegram channels larping as ShinyHunters to ransom companies and then sell the used data or resell his forum when he goes broke,” one member recounted.
A relatively new Telegram channel called “The Battle” has been doxing and needling Rey and other alleged ShinyHunters members for several weeks, and it has gained a considerable readership among the cybercrime communities operating on Telegram. One of the coordinators of that harassment campaign repeatedly portrayed Rey as clueless greenhorn who sought to ride the coattails of a cybercriminal brand that has long enjoyed a reputation for ruthlessly selling or publishing data stolen from victim companies who refuse to give in to extortion demands.
“Rey (Saif Al-Din Khader) made a serious mistake when he started pretending to be a member of ShinyHunters,” wrote the administrators of The Battle server on Telegram. “That group had already been dismantled, with many of its members either arrested or imprisoned, yet Rey still chose to use its name while carrying out his crimes. We’re aware of claims that [Rey] caused over $200 million in damages and helped around 5–6 friend groups in the community make money by using Shiny Hunters group aliases to negotiate deals for a 25–30% cut over the past few months.”
In an interview with The Register, ShinyHunters claimed they hacked the FBI to counter the agency’s narrative in a May 2026 alert that advised victims against paying a ransom to the group, which came off looking unprofessional and capricious in the FBI’s advisory.
A flash notice on ShinyHunters released by the FBI on May 15, 2026.
The public notice warned the group has been known to pursue a number of different victim harassment strategies, from sending threatening text messages and phone calls to victims and their family members to in some cases swatting victims. The FBI warned ShinyHunters members “may also falsely claim to have sensitive or compromising information, including embarrassing photographs or videos of victims, which frequently do not exist.”
The hackers told The Register their attack on the FBI “demonstrated our technical capabilities and directly refuted the misinformation disseminated by the FBI, journalists, and industry researchers.” At the same time, the group’s leaders seemed to acknowledge that the FBI’s warning materially harmed their prospects for convincing victims to pay, saying “this was fundamentally a public relations and marketing initiative for our business.”
The net is tightening around the Shiny Hunters cybercrime group following the reported arrest of a second member.
On Saturday, Reuters said that 16 year-old Saif al-Din Khader had been arrested in Jordan and was in FBI custody. This follows the arrest earlier in September of another member in the Netherlands. Third party reports named him as 24 year-old Pepijn van der Stap, an offensive security lead at Dutch company Neo Security.
The FBI posted a message following the Dutch arrest warning other ShinyHunter members that it was coming for them next. Cyber Division Assistant Director Brett Leatherman hinted that people already taken into custody had been talking. Then he said:
“You know how to find us, and we know how to find you. I suggest you reach out first while the choice is still yours.”
According to security blogger Brian Krebs, Khader (who goes by the nickname ‘Rey’), was the technical operator and public face of Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters, which he said was an amalgamation of three groups: Scattered Spider, LAPSUS$ and ShinyHunters.
Active since at least 2019, ShinyHunters focused on data theft and extortion. The group commonly uses social engineering to gain access to victims’ accounts on third-party services, but also exploits flaws in software.
Victims of the ShinyHunters group include Kodak, along with American healthcare and pharmaceuticals distributor McKesson. The gang also recently compromised rival cybercrime group Clop and defaced its leak site.
Shortly after the Clop attack, ShinyHunters hacked the FBI. The group said that this wasn’t financially motivated, but instead was a response to a May FBI advisory about its activities. That announcement followed ShinyHunters’ own cyberattack on Instructure, which runs the Canvas online educational system.
The FBI attack targeted the agency’s jobs site, and is said to have exploited a vulnerability in PeopleSoft, HR software owned by Oracle. The data breach, which ShinyHunters claimed amounted to Terabytes, is said to have included a wide array of information on employees, ranging from names, addresses, and phone numbers through to badge numbers, job titles, and information on spouses. Other information included fitness-for-work medical records along with blood and urine test results, and doctors’ notes.
This data is said to include sensitive information on agents investigating targets including Russia, China, and the drug cartels. It would be catastrophic for law enforcement efforts, national intelligence, and individuals if this information fell into the wrong hands.
ShinyHunters has said that it won’t release the data, arguing that the intrusion wasn’t financially motivated. It criticized the FBI for what it said was disinformation in the May advisory. The FBI had said that the group had harassed victims’ family members and threatened to release embarrassing pictures.
The FBI also removed an Accenture contractor this week after they failed to apply a security patch to third-party software that it had been using. Insiders identified this software as PeopleSoft.
The FBI pulled an Accenture contractor off its account on Monday, and the reason is almost mundane compared to the damage it caused. One update didn’t get installed on time.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation removed an Accenture contractor on Monday over their role in a damaging data breach that exposed sensitive personal details of thousands of bureau employees, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.” Reuters reports. “The development comes as the FBI is still trying to ascertain the ramifications of the breach, which some former bureau officials have described as a major blow to the organization’s operational security.”
Two sources told Reuters the bureau cut ties with the contractor over their role in a breach that exposed sensitive personal data on thousands of FBI employees. Former bureau officials are calling it a serious hit to the organization’s operational security, not just an embarrassing headline. That’s a strong statement coming from people who used to run the place.
“To date, our review has determined that the incident occurred as the result of a security failure of a platform managed by a third-party organization — after a contractor failed to implement a security patch explicitly issued to secure the platform,” FBI cyber chief Brett Leatherman said in the statement to Reuters. “As such, the FBI has removed the contractor and taken all necessary steps to both mitigate any further risk and protect our workforce.”
FBI cyber chief Brett Leatherman laid out exactly what went wrong in a statement to Reuters. The incident traces back to a platform managed by a third party, where a contractor “failed to implement a security patch explicitly issued to secure the platform.” Not an unknown flaw, not a zero day, a fix that already existed and just didn’t get installed.
Reuters’ sources identified the platform as Oracle PeopleSoft, the human resources software running the FBI’s job site, and named Accenture as the third party managing it. Oracle hasn’t responded to requests for comment. Accenture, for its part, said only that it’s proud to support the FBI’s mission and plans to keep doing so, dodging every question about the contractor or the missed patch.
In June, Google warned about a ShinyHunters-linked campaign targeting PeopleSoft users. On the same day, Oracle issued a security alert about the vulnerability and released a fix. Both companies told PeopleSoft customers to install all critical patches and security updates as soon as possible.
ShinyHunters later said they used this same PeopleSoft vulnerability to access the FBI’s job site. Patching large enterprise systems can be difficult, but this wasn’t an unknown or obscure flaw. It had already been publicly identified, attackers were exploiting it, and a fix was available.
In September, the popular cybercrime group ShinyHunters claimed that it breached the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and stole sensitive information belonging to FBI employees and job applicants. The group says the operation was not financially motivated and was instead carried out in response to an FBI warning published earlier this year.
The claim surfaced on September 22 and quickly drew attention after ShinyHunters said it obtained data on a large number of current and former FBI personnel. The group reportedly offered a sample of around 5,000 records as evidence and claimed that the stolen information could include names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, assignments and, in some cases, family details.
Reuters was able to partially match some of the sample information with other records, including data associated with FBI Director Kash Patel.
“Reuters was able to partially verify the authenticity of the information by running the details, including the Social Security numbers, against credit bureau records and previously breached data preserved by the dark-web intelligence firm District 4 Labs.” reads the report published by Reuters. “In at least 10 instances — including in the case of FBI Director Kash Patel — Reuters found details that appeared to match. A person familiar with the matter said that the job descriptions in the data also matched in at least some cases.”
The FBI acknowledged that it is aware of claims involving unauthorized activity affecting FBIjobs.gov and said it is investigating. The agency has not confirmed that its internal systems were compromised or that ShinyHunters obtained the data it claims to possess.
ShinyHunters provided a possible technical explanation for the alleged intrusion. The group claims the exploitation of an Oracle PeopleSoft zero-day, reportedly using it to gain remote code execution through infrastructure connected to the FBI’s recruitment services.
The attackers also reportedly claimed access to several FBI-related services, including human resources systems and a system they referred to as Medlink. They allegedly said that between 2 TB and 3 TB of data had been taken and that the FBI jobs infrastructure had been compromised.
There is also a clear motive behind the operation claimed by ShinyHunters. The group says it targeted the FBI after a May 2026 public advisory describing its tactics and warning victims against paying. ShinyHunters disputes the FBI’s characterization of its activities and is reportedly demanding that the Bureau retract or correct the warning.
This makes the alleged attack unusual. Instead of immediately demanding a conventional ransom, the group appears to be using the stolen data as leverage in a dispute with U.S. law enforcement.
The timing is also significant. ShinyHunters has recently claimed responsibility for several major breaches and has been involved in a public dispute with the Clop cybercrime operation. The group recently claimed to have compromised Clop’s data leak site, highlighting the increasingly aggressive behavior surrounding the group.
The stolen data is much more sensitive than the usual names and email addresses seen in data breaches. It includes details about named employees’ counterintelligence roles, home addresses of human intelligence operatives, and medical and psychiatric records of FBI staff.
For an agency where some employees depend on keeping their identities, jobs and home addresses private, this goes beyond a normal data breach. It creates a serious operational security risk.
Last week a key ShinyHunters suspect got picked up in Jordan and reportedly started cooperating with investigators, which might help the bureau understand just how bad the damage really is. Removing one contractor doesn’t undo an exposure like this, it just closes the door after the fact.
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Accenture)
A ShinyHunters hacker arrest in Jordan may aid the FBI, as an alleged member reportedly shares devices and chats. Here is what we know.
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The post ShinyHunters Hacker Arrest in Jordan Aids FBI Probe appeared first on Daily CyberSecurity.
A suspected member of ShinyHunters, the group that claims to have stolen data on every FBI employee, was picked up in Jordan this week.
The man is Saif al-Din Khader, detained by Jordanian authorities, with two sources placing the arrest on Tuesday. Reuters couldn’t confirm the exact circumstances or where he’s being held.
“A suspected member of the ShinyHunters hacking group, which says it stole data on every FBI employee, was detained in Jordan this week and is cooperating with the FBI, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.” the Reuters states.
Two sources said he’s now helping the FBI and international law enforcement track down the rest of the group.
One source told Reuters that Khader is showing investigators his own devices and digital communications to help identify former associates. That gives investigators real access to potential evidence, not just a general promise to cooperate.
“The FBI declined to comment on any specific arrest or activity abroad but said that the bureau “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.”” Reuters continues.
The case matters beyond Khader’s arrest. ShinyHunters claims to have stolen personal data on FBI employees, and Reuters’ earlier analysis found that the leaked sample included detailed personal information, sensitive job-related data, and psychiatric and medical records. Some have compared the incident to the 2015 OPM breach, in which a China-linked attack exposed security clearance data belonging to millions of Americans. If the ShinyHunters claims are even partly confirmed, that comparison would be justified.
Dutch police confirmed this week that the 24-year-old man from Amsterdam was arrested earlier this month as part of an investigation into the cybercrime group ShinyHunters. The suspect appears before Rotterdam District Court today, September 29. Multiple sources, including KrebsOnSecurity, have identified him as Pepijn van der Stap, a Dutch hacker previously known online as “Umbreon.”
The connection to ShinyHunters runs through the “Umbreon” alias. Van der Stap used that handle and Pokémon imagery on BreachForums as early as 2021.
Then the FBI jobs site defacement that ShinyHunters left after the FBIjobs.gov breach prominently featured an ASCII art version of the same Pokémon character, and the image appears identical to one used in a 2020 HackForums defacement attributed to ShinyHunters, a year before Van der Stap created his Umbreon account. That last detail cuts both ways: either the alias predates him in this context, or the timing coincidence is genuinely awkward. KrebsOnSecurity adds a more pointed interpretation: sources familiar with the investigation say the Umbreon imagery in the FBI defacement may have been a deliberate attempt by ShinyHunters’ current leader, a teenager from Amman, Jordan known as Rey, to pin the hack on Van der Stap. The two reportedly had ongoing bad blood over control of the ShinyHunters brand and data.
FBI Director Kash Patel had already hinted that more arrests were coming.
“FBI teams are working new leads RIGHT NOW. More arrests are on the table.” Patel wrote on X.
NO SAFE HAVEN.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 30, 2026
Working with our Dutch National Police partners, the FBI helped put an alleged leader of ShinyHunters—a global cybercrime threat actor—behind bars.
And we’re not done.
FBI teams are working new leads RIGHT NOW. More arrests are on the table.
If you attack… pic.twitter.com/T7CK4KIKl9
ShinyHunters’ own infrastructure has been wobbling since this week started. Reuters lost contact with the group’s usual communication account on Tuesday, the same day Khader was reportedly detained, and by Wednesday the group’s dark web leak site had gone offline entirely. The alleged leader of the group, Rey, told journalist Brian Krebs in November 2025 that he’d been quietly cooperating with law enforcement since June, well before any of this became public.
In November 2025, security journalist Brian Krebs reported that Rey was Saif Al-Din Khader after analyzing information obtained from infostealer logs and speaking directly with Khader over Signal.
What is new is what cooperation can look like when someone is in custody. An FBI Cyber Division official explained the situation last week: arrests can make people more willing to talk, while seized servers can reveal information about those who are still outside. Once someone’s laptop becomes evidence, loyalty can disappear very quickly.
A new ShinyHunters leak site reportedly came back online on Thursday, so the group itself isn’t dead, just missing one more member.
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, ShinyHunters )
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