The FBI has confirmed that it is dealing with a cyber security incident that struck computer systems at a field office in New York that investigates cases of child sexual exploitation.
According to CNN, the agency confirmed that threat actors targeted the computer systems of the FBI’s New York Field Office which investigates child sexual exploitation.
“The FBI is aware of the incident and is working to gain additional information,” the bureau said in a statement shared with CNN.
While FBI officials confirmed that the agency is still in the process of determining the scope and nature of the security incident, the attack is considered to be an “isolated incident” that the agency says has already been contained.
“This is an isolated incident that has been contained. As this is an ongoing investigation the FBI does not have a further comment to provide at this time,” the agency added.
This isn’t the first time threat actors have targeted FBI systems. In November 2021, the agency investigated a cyber incident involving an internal server after thousands of fake emails were sent out from the same, warning recipients about a major cyber attack to be carried out by the hacker group the Dark Overlord.
The fake emails, which warned recipients about an impending cyber attack from a foreign hacker group, were worded to give recipients the impression that they were sent out by the US Department of Homeland Security. The fact that the fake emails were generated from the @ic.fbi.gov email account gave recipients no reason to believe they were fake.
After the news went public, the FBI quickly released a statement, saying it was investigating the incident and that the affected email server was taken offline as soon as the issue was discovered. The agency also asked recipients of fake emails to report issues to the CISA or IC3.
“The FBI and CISA are aware of the incident this morning involving fake emails from an @ic.fbi.gov email account. This is an ongoing situation, and we are not able to provide any additional information at this time.
“The impacted hardware was taken offline quickly upon discovery of the issue. We continue to encourage the public to be cautious of unknown senders and urge you to report suspicious activity to ic3.gov or cisa.gov,” it said.
