Iran-linked hackers successfully broke into FBI Director Kash Patel's personal email, the Department of Justice confirmed to Reuters on Friday.

Reuters could not authenticate the leaked emails themselves but noted that the Gmail address matched an email account "linked to Patel in previous data breaches ⁠preserved by the dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs." The DOJ suggested the emails appeared to be authentic.

On their website, the Handala Hack Team boasted that Patel "will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims." The hacker group taunted Patel by sharing photos of him sniffing cigars and holding up a jug of rum, along with other documents that Reuters reported were from 2010 to 2019.

"Soon you will realize that the FBI's security was nothing more than a joke," the group posted, as documented in screenshots from the website shared widely on X.

The hack came after the DOJ disrupted some of the hacker group's websites earlier this month. In a press release, Patel threatened to "hunt" down the group, which Reuters reported "calls itself a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers." After detailing four attacks this month that the group had taken credit for, Patel offered rewards of up to $10 million for information on its members.

"Iran thought they could hide behind fake websites and keyboard threats to terrorize Americans and silence dissidents," Patel said. "We took down four of their operation's pillars and we're not done. This FBI will hunt down every actor behind these cowardly death threats and cyberattacks and will bring the full force of American law enforcement down on them."

The group, which Western researchers believe is "one of several personas used by Iranian government cyberintelligence units," opposes US support for Israel, Reuters reported. Their cyberattacks on US entities followed a major military attack from the US and Israel that killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In their press release, the DOJ quoted from emails in which the group sent death threats to dissidents in the US.

"We the Handala Hack team, the loyal followers of the supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, declare war on all the enemies of Islam in the West," the group said.

On Friday, the group confirmed on their website that the hack on Patel's email was in retaliation against the domain seizures:

Today, once again, the world witnessed the collapse of America's so-called security legends. While the FBI proudly seized our domains and immediately announced a $10 million reward for the heads of Handala Hack members, we decided to respond to this ridiculous show in a way that will be remembered forever.

Hackers claimed that their data grab included confidential information about Patel, but that could not be independently verified.

"The so-called 'impenetrable' systems of the FBI were brought to their knees within hours by our team," the group said on their website. "All personal and confidential information of Kash Patel, including emails, conversations, documents, and even classified files, is now available for public download."

The FBI has yet to comment on the hack, and Patel has not posted about it on his X account as of this writing.

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The following excerpts are by Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, an Emirati billionaire.

Nov. 11, 2024. This is what you want:

A New Era of Hope: President Trump’s Return and the Promise of Stability

The re-election of President #Donald_Trump heralds a new era of optimism and possibility for both the #United_States and the global community. His return to office signals a steadfast commitment to revitalising the US economy and prioritising the well-being of the American people. As a businessman with a proven track record, President #Trump brings a practical approach to governance, focusing on economic prosperity and tangible results.

[]

President #Trump’s commitment to addressing the #Middle_East’s unique security challenges is clear. Unlike past administrations, which engaged in deals that inadvertently strengthened #Iran’s influence, President #Trump has taken a firm stance against #Tehran’s destabilising activities. His administration has consistently recognised the need to counteract extremist forces and has taken robust measures to limit #Iran’s ambitions across the region, from #Lebanon to #Yemen.

March 5, 2026: This is what you get:

You have placed the countries of the GCC and the Arab countries at the heart of a danger they did not choose. Thank God, we are strong and capable of defending ourselves, and we have armies and defenses that protect our homelands, but the question remains: Who gave you permission to turn our region into a battlefield?

Who says billionaires can’t be funny? I can’t remember which commentarian posted about his angry letter to tRump, but thanks for the laugh.

Open thread.

The post The order of death (comment free-for-all) appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

Looking for something else and stumble right into this, from 2014.

Don't fall into the anti-AI hype

As Salvatore Sanfilippo puts it:

It does not matter if AI companies will not be able to get their money back and the stock market will crash. All that is irrelevant, in the long run. It does not matter if this or the other CEO of some unicorn is telling you something that is off putting, or absurd. Programming changed forever, anyway.

I do like this hopeful positive outlook on what this could all mean, emphasis mine:

How do I feel, about all the code I wrote that was ingested by LLMs? I feel great to be part of that, because I see this as a continuation of what I tried to do all my life: democratizing code, systems, knowledge. LLMs are going to help us to write better software, faster, and will allow small teams to have a chance to compete with bigger companies. The same thing open source software did in the 90s.

This post has been the subject of heated discussions all day today on both Hacker News and Lobste.rs.

Tags: salvatore-sanfilippo, ai, generative-ai, llms, ai-assisted-programming, ai-ethics