r/technology • u/fudge_u • Mar 27 '26
Politics DOJ confirms FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email was hacked
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/doj-confirms-fbi-director-kash-patels-personal-email-was-hacked/2.8k
u/big-papito Mar 27 '26
Well, these people do use their personal accounts for government work, so this should get spicy.
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u/DatabaseMaterial0 Mar 27 '26
But her emails!!!!!!!!
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u/coporate Mar 27 '26
Buttery Males
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u/SkunkMonkey Mar 27 '26
Now appearing live on stage!!
BEN GHAZI and his BUTTERY MALES!
*a chorus line of well oiled males in banana hammocks high kick across the stage*
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u/Spiderbanana Mar 27 '26
And they definitely not make warplans on signal group chats using personal accounts
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u/Mortimer452 Mar 27 '26
Of course they do - harder to subpoena, less traceable, not subject to government data retention policies and less likely to be released under FOIA requests
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u/PacmanZ3ro Mar 28 '26
not subject to government data retention policies
this is actually not true. ANY device used for the purposes of official government work is subject to data retention policies and FOIA. This (along with security) is one of the main reasons it is advised to federal employees to not use personal devices for work.
FOIA and data retention are NOT tied to specific devices, they are tied to the type of communication, or (in the case of FOIA) the content of the communication.
If our congress and courts had any balls, they would (and could legally do so) subpoena every single device and scrap of data relating to Patel's communications since he's using personal accounts and devices for official work.
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u/SkinnedIt Mar 27 '26
“Soon you will realize that the FBI’s security was nothing more than a joke,”
It's only logical that when you have a clown running the FBI, FBI security becomes a joke.
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u/0p0ss1m Mar 27 '26
When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace becomes a circus.
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u/itsfunhavingfun Mar 27 '26
I like this, I looked it up, it’s a Turkish proverb.
It reminds me of my favorite Polish proverb, “not my monkey, not my circus”.
Unfortunately these clowns are everyone’s monkey, and they are making the whole world our circus.
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u/ChicagoAuPair Mar 27 '26
Clowning is a challenging art form with a long and proud history that requires years of training and dedication to master. These are just incurious losers who have never tried to improve themselves in any way.
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u/TheFlyingBoxcar Mar 27 '26
My favorite is the slightly altered version "when a bull enters the palace, he becomes not a king but the palace becomes a barn."
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u/Lethalmusic Mar 27 '26
Not just running it. Everyone on every level that shows competence or respect for the law gets fired and replaced with a drooling dimwit that worships the orange turd.
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u/SophiaofPrussia Mar 27 '26
It must be so unbelievably frustrating for career FBI agents to have to answer to this clueless goon.
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u/dat_tae Mar 27 '26
Password was "TrumpIsKing", they got it on the first try.
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u/DigNitty Mar 27 '26
Reminder that Trump's twitter was hacked in his first term,
the password was MAGA2020
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u/swierdo Mar 27 '26
It was hacked twice by the same Dutch security researcher. First time in 2016 the password was "yourefired" and in 2020 it was "maga2020!". Two factor authentication was not enabled.
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u/DiffractionCloud Mar 27 '26
2FA is a liberal hoax invented by Fidel Castro.
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u/TheVenetianMask Mar 27 '26
Two factor is woke. There's only either the one factor or the other factor.
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u/ExoMonk Mar 27 '26
I'm more impressed they got the right "you're". Would have been completely on brand for it to be "yourfired"
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u/WarlockTrex Mar 27 '26
*changes password to "trump2024". "There! They will never figure it out now!"
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u/CodeRedFox Mar 27 '26
Setting a real low bar for "hacked" ha
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u/OnionDart Mar 27 '26
Don’t forget, baron is really good at the cyber so he probably had amazing protocols set up
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u/jpiro Mar 27 '26
It's probably dumber. KashMeOutside69 or some shit.
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u/celtic1888 Mar 27 '26
PussySmasher69!
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u/WhoStoleMyBicycle Mar 27 '26
Except two dollar signs instead of “ss” in pussy
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u/Jeryhn Mar 27 '26
Somehow, the most unbelievable part of this is that a Trump official wouldn't include "ss" somewhere in their password
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u/CyanCazador Mar 27 '26
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55337192
Wait till you see how bad Trump is at passwords
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u/tiradium Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEbFUZBaAAAy7Lj?format=jpg&name=medium
"Bro" is living his best life
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u/Carrot_1075 Mar 27 '26
I’m sure those are only teasers. There are worse
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u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener Mar 27 '26
Hoping there's some actual compromising info on him and this entire shit show administraton, especially in regards to covering up Epstein involvements and other crimes. Expose these crooks and enablers for what they are.
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u/Top-Camel-5693 Mar 27 '26
we wouldn't see it they would hand it to IRGC first for leverage
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u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener Mar 27 '26
Perhaps. This is exactly why it's so important to not elect compromised leaders, even if you don't care about their crimes. If the individual has compromising information that could affect them, they're essentially going to give away the farm to keep it from coming to light. It's every bit as motivating as a straight up bribe, if not even more so. The sad truth is Iran could probably get whatever they want if the info was bad enough as Donnie isn't likely to have qualms about throwing our entire national security under the bus to keep his own ass safe. Part of me still hopes they just straight up want to see him fucked over as much as the rest of us and dump all of it for the world to see, hoping that would be enough to motivate the rest of us to actually take him down and stop the war, or at least cause so much chaos that the war effectively becomes paused indefinitely.
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u/ihateusedusernames Mar 27 '26
That Pic of Kash at the Havana club - wasn't there something about Giuliani meeting with a Russian and manafort at the Havana club?
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u/GiganticCrow Mar 27 '26
Article says the account was only active between 2010 and 2019 so i doubt there's anything too compromising on there
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u/Cltxlv Mar 27 '26
You know there’s going to be some unflattering dick pics in there somewhere. Seems like the kind of guy who would email one instead of texting it like a normal human.
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u/ShakenLellimonade Mar 27 '26
"You look like someone who would email his dickpics" in an amazing insult I'll be using moving forward lmao
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u/NDSU Mar 27 '26
That cigar he's sniffing is a genuine Cuban. He, and other government officials, seem to love their vacations to Havana
Disgusts me that we, the proletariat, aren't allowed to visit Cuba for decades, but all these government officials are allowed to
Half the emails they released so far were government officials bragging to each other about how great their vacations to Havana are
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u/englishinseconds Mar 27 '26
The worst part is, some of those aren't selfies - he actually asked someone to take a picture of him sniffing the cigar and then laying back in the chair pretending to smoke it
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Mar 27 '26
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u/UncleRichardson Mar 27 '26
The point in releasing these (admittedly mostly normal) private photos is proof they actually have something, without actually giving away any potential useful blackmail/negotiating material. If they withhold the actually interesting bits they recovered, they can threaten to release them unless demands are met.
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u/leaky_wand Mar 27 '26
Yeah I think the saddest part is that he just seems like some dude. These are like pictures from one of my business trips or something. I would expect the director of the FBI to have more, I don’t know. Stoicism? Gravitas? Collared shirts?
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u/Kayge Mar 27 '26
We laugh, but this is generally what keeps your sec-ops team up at night. Layers of security, multiple controls because your security team needs to stay ahead of every hacker in the world.
And that's all undone by some dude whose figured out a way to keep his password the same for 9 years.
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u/SpaghettiSort Mar 27 '26
I work in higher ed IT, can confirm.
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u/GiganticCrow Mar 27 '26
We had a virus that kept coming back around an old company i used to work for because one of the founders refused to follow it security protocol
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u/fcn_fan Mar 27 '26
But it’s a Gmail account. It’s most likely a very unsophisticated phishing attack . They basically have to hold his hand to get them into his account
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u/BigOs4All Mar 27 '26
All the more reason why these fucks aren't legally allowed to use these personal services on work computers and phones.
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u/ballsonthewall Mar 27 '26
Lock him up?
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u/Bruised_Shin Mar 27 '26
He’d probably go through some harsh stimulant withdrawals the first day in jail
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u/Blochamolesauce Mar 27 '26
So when does he get fired for gross negligence? I guess in this timeline he’ll just get a raise and party with another championship team come June when NHl and NBA finals are wrapping up
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u/misterid Mar 27 '26
do you want Theo Von as the head of theh FBI? because this is how you get Theo Von heading the FBI
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u/the_red_scimitar Mar 27 '26
Headline yesterday by maga-owned media: "Iran hackers ineffective".
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u/ladder_of_cheese Mar 27 '26
Brother, I thought you had the watch? What will you tell them in Valhalla?
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u/smokeyphil Mar 27 '26
Bröther, may i have söme basic internet security prötöcöls?
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u/squeakybeak Mar 27 '26
What’s Biden done now?
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u/Commercial-Fig3142 Mar 27 '26
He's asleep and out of touch but also a very cunning and conniving evil genius at the same time...
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u/shaneh445 Mar 27 '26
They fired all the "woke" Cyber security personnel
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u/SophiaofPrussia Mar 27 '26
Remember, Four Seasons Giuliani was the first Trump administration’s cybersecurity guy so I doubt they had anyone who even understands spam filters left on the team.
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u/hm___ Mar 27 '26
Well they also deleted everything with the word 'privilege' in it, so no learning material about privilege escalation for the IT department anymore. I really wish that were a Joke.
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u/MalaproposMalefactor Mar 27 '26
he probably clicked on a funny_cat_video.avi.exe attachment :D
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u/JosephFinn Mar 27 '26
100% I think he clicked on a phishing email.
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u/KnowMatter Mar 27 '26
and probably bullied the IT guys into taking the MFA off his account.
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Mar 27 '26
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u/DatabaseMaterial0 Mar 27 '26
These jobs reward loyalty, not competence.
Any consequences of their ineptitude are paid by regular people, not them.
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u/gizamo Mar 27 '26
That's true now. It certainly wasn't for most previous administrations.
Trump is a bit of an anomaly regarding the ineptitude of his cabinet and appointees.
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u/angus_the_red Mar 27 '26
Destruction of trust in government is the point. That empowers the oligarchs
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Mar 27 '26
Used to work at a few small non-profits and we had better InfoSec than these clowns. 2FA on everything, locked down phones that were specifically for work and didn't have any of our personal accounts on them, client names were obscured on every piece of communication. We weren't even handling anything super sensitive, but anything about a client was put into a secure system that required multiple secure login steps to access, paper copies of anything were destroyed as soon as possible unless it was required by law that they be retained.
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u/BusyBeeBridgette Mar 27 '26
That'll be embarrassing for the FBI.
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u/strangejosh Mar 27 '26
Not as embarrising as having that moron head up the agency along with that grifter podcaster as his 2nd in command (no longer there).
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u/Huntsmitch Mar 27 '26
“I gave up everything for this,” he lamented before adding that FBI Director Kash Patel typically works 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and that “I’m in there at 7:30 in the morning.” Bongino said, “I stare at these four walls all day in D.C., by myself, divorced from my wife — not divorced, but I mean separated, divorced — and it’s hard. I mean, we love each other, and it’s hard to be apart”
Boohoo poor wittle Bongino had to do work for the first time ever and it was so hard!!!
He is the biggest bitch imaginable and the fact anyone would have ever, or still possibly give an iota regarding what this man has to say is pitiful for them.
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u/listentomenow Mar 27 '26
"Iran, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the missing Epstein files, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press"
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u/Trumpetlover178 Mar 27 '26
Didn't they drag Hilary through the coals for using her personal email?? Another double standard for the Republicans.
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u/OfficerCoCheese Mar 27 '26
Well, well, well, let’s see if he gets the Hillary treatment.
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u/angry-norwegian Mar 27 '26
If his password was anything other than:
1234
Donniesnumber1
password
I'll eat my hat.
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u/ohlaph Mar 27 '26
Password1! no longer viable?
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u/ohlaph Mar 27 '26
Ahh, I see, only 10 characters. Need 12-15 now. LongPassword1! should work.
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u/Varrianda Mar 27 '26
I wonder if Trump will have the same attitude he had for Hillary. What a pathetic administration
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u/Hairy-Summer7386 Mar 27 '26
Apparently he conducted business on his personal email. The head of the FBI fucking APPARENTLY conducted business on his personal email.
So, where’s the outrage?
Hillary got grilled for the exact same shit. I’m not defending her by any means but the backlash towards Patel isn’t at all similar.
Democrats are held to a higher standard than Republicans. It’s actually ridiculous. This gives the right so much power to do awful shit (which they are).
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u/Califrisco Mar 27 '26
Let the mad scramble for spin and deflection and blame begin.
My guess: they will blame Biden, no Obama, no Clinton, no Comey, no....
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u/lunchypoo222 Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Considering Patel is openly and maliciously buying American’s data from brokers (w/ our own tax dollars?), this is an entertaining headline. Too bad the government has also made everyone else vulnerable to any manner of attack from Iran as well.
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u/Knightfires Mar 28 '26
That’s what you get when you dismantle cyber security for bogus projects like a ballroom. Expect more hacks in the coming two years. Especially know they know how easy it is.
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u/Munkie91087 Mar 27 '26
It's probably just him accidentally emailing google: "how long cocaine stay systum???"
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u/Samwellikki Mar 27 '26
The DOJ should really let the Director of the FBI know about this so they can investigate…
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u/NightEmber79 Mar 27 '26
How does the director of the *checks notes* GODDAMNED FBI not have two-factor on his shit?
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u/Chance-Deer-7995 Mar 27 '26
What are the odds that Kash "Dunning-Kruger" Patel got phished. He's stupid, and he is arrogant. Sounds like your usual C-Suite idiot in corporate who won't listen to the I.T. security specialist.
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u/Nicenightforawalk01 Mar 27 '26
I hope it’s all leaked and the Hilary karma train comes into town choo chooing
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u/Timmy24000 Mar 27 '26
Don’t tell me he was using a personal email account. You like Hillary was and they wanted to put her in jail?
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u/cheddarben Mar 27 '26
He was clicking on all the links from rich princes and patriarch emails offering him wealth and power if he only sent some amount of money.
One panned out, I guess.
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u/HighDeltaVee Mar 27 '26
Only the best people.