Some of the emails were titled: “Urgent: Threatening Actor in the System.”
Computer security experts said on Saturday that fake emails allegedly from the US Department of Homeland Security of the cyberattack were sent from a secure FBI computer server.
The FBI confirmed a report by independent security group Spamhaus that a large number of fake emails were sent in two waves early Saturday from an address on the government’s law enforcement enterprise portal, which is used by several government agencies.
Some of the emails sent to the Homeland Security Cyber Threat Detection Group were titled: “Urgent: Threat Actors in Systems.”
According to Spamhaus, he warned the recipients that they were the target of a “sophisticated” hacking attack from a known extortion gang.
Independent cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs said he too had received a fake email from the FBI’s address, albeit with a different message.
In a statement, the FBI and DHS Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency confirmed the incident without giving details.
“The FBI and CISA are aware of this morning’s incident involving fake emails from the @ic.fbi.gov email account,” he said in a statement.
“This is an ongoing situation and we are not able to provide any additional information at this time. Affected hardware was immediately taken offline when the problem was detected. We continue to encourage the public to beware of unknown senders.” and urge you to report suspicious activity,” it added.
There was no indication of how the emails were sent – whether someone used legitimate access to the server or a hacker from outside.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
,