Agents fearful and angry after 'dangerous' FBI data breach

Current and former FBI agents have spoken to BBC News of their shock, fear and anger following a hack that appears to have exposed the private and personal information of the agency's entire workforce.

The former cyber investigator is in a group chat with current agents who are worried their personal information could soon be freely available online to criminals and hostile nation-state hackers.

The hacking group ShinyHunters is threatening to publish the stolen databases and documents within four days unless its demands are met.

"One of the things we are discussing in the group chat is 'violence-as-a-service' attacks from young online gangs," says the former worker.

Groups similar to ShinyHunters - believed to be an English-speaking gang - have in the past been linked to swatting incidents, and even petrol bomb attacks against law enforcement officers and rivals.

The group claims it breached FBI systems on Monday and later posted details of the attack on its darknet site.

However, on Wednesday the agency acknowledged the breach - saying it was "aggressively investigating" how it occurred.

He says agents understand the "inherent risks" that come with the job.

ShinyHunters shared samples of the alleged stolen data with reporters, along with an extortion demand.

The records appear to relate to thousands of agents, including senior officials such as deputy directors.

BBC News has seen samples of stolen "fitness-for-work" medical examinations containing information such as blood and urine test results, along with doctors' notes mentioning conditions including a "shellfish and banana allergy".

Cynthia Kaiser, who was the Deputy Director of Cyber at the FBI and now leads the Research Centre at Halcyon says ShinyHunters appear to already have lost control of some of the data which is circulating in various online groups of cyber researchers and could lead to harm even before the main tranche is published.