FBI Director Kash Patel’s Emails and Photos Hacked by Iran-Linked Group

A group of Iran-linked hackers has claimed that it successfully gained access to the personal email account of Kash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and leaked photographs and documents online.

The vigilante group Handala Hack Team announced on Friday that Patel would “now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims.” Reuters and CNN confirmed the breach, citing unnamed security officials and people familiar with the matter. The FBI and Department of Justice have not yet commented on the incident.

The leaked material appears to include documents more than a decade old. Some emails show Patel’s travel and business correspondence. Others include personal photos of Patel posing beside an antique sports convertible, with a cigar in his mouth, and standing in front of a mirror holding a bottle of rum.

Patel became the ninth director of the FBI in 2025. His leadership has been marked by controversy, with critics accusing him of misusing the federal law enforcement agency for personal travel and to advance President Donald Trump’s priorities.

The hacking group, which describes itself as pro-Palestinian hacking vigilantes, also claimed responsibility for a recent cyberattack on the medical device company Stryker.

Western researchers have linked the group to Iranian cyberintelligence. It said the attack on Patel was in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli strike on a children’s school in Minab, southern Iran, that killed more than 170 people, most of them schoolgirls. The group described the operation as “the beginning of a new chapter in cyber warfare.”

Iran has threatened to intensify attacks on Western economic interests as a form of pressure amid the ongoing U.S.-Israel war against the country.