A key member of the hacker group known as ShinyHunters, who announced that they compromised the systems of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and stole data on a huge number of current and former FBI employees, was detained earlier this week in Jordan.
Two sources said that he is cooperating with the FBI to identify other hackers, said three people familiar with the situation, quoted by Reuters.
Rey helps FBI
Saif al-Din Khader was detained by Jordanian authorities, the three sources said. Two of them stated that the man was arrested on Tuesday.
Two sources said that Khader, whose pseudonym is Rey, is helping the FBI and law enforcement authorities locate other hackers in the group.
FBI declined to comment on any foreign arrests or activities, but stated that the agency "continues to investigate the recent cyber incident involving the ShinyHunters group, already collaborating with partners to arrest multiple suspects, and making every effort to bring all those responsible to justice."
ShinyHunters vandalized FBI recruitment site
In a statement published on its dark web site and in an online discussion with Reuters, ShinyHunters stated that they targeted the FBI in response to an announcement made by the agency in May 2026, detailing the group's methods and advising victims not to pay ransom.
The digital extortion group claimed to have stolen data about "almost ALL FBI agents and individuals who applied for a position within the FBI," presenting as evidence what they described as a screenshot of the vandalized FBI recruitment site, as well as information about approximately 5,000 agents - data presented as just a sample of the total volume of stolen information.
The data sample appeared to contain information such as names of FBI agents, their home addresses, social security numbers, assigned missions, and, in some cases, names of their family members.
ShinyHunters is one of the most notorious and attention-seeking hacker groups in the world.
Among its recent intrusions is the alleged theft of millions of business records from video game developer Rockstar Games - creator of the "Grand Theft Auto" series - and a breach in May targeting the Canvas educational platform, causing major disruptions in US schools.
Earlier in September, the artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced that it had detected hackers associated with the ShinyHunters group while trying to use its tools.