Suspected ShinyHunters Hacker Detained in Jordan, Cooperating with FBI

A suspected member of ShinyHunters, the hacktivist group responsible for defacing the FBI’s website last month, was taken into custody in Jordan this week and is currently cooperating with investigators, according to U.S. officials.

Jordanian authorities detained Saif al-Din Khader, according to two U.S. officials and another source familiar with the matter, as reported by CBS News.

ShinyHunters, a well-known cybercrime collective, has claimed responsibility for several major data breaches. The group has alleged—without public verification—that it obtained information on every FBI employee. It remains unclear how many other individuals may be implicated in the operation.

The FBI declined to comment specifically on the arrest but issued a statement affirming its commitment to the case. “The Bureau continues to aggressively investigate the recent Cyber incident allegedly involving ShinyHunters, having already worked with partners to arrest multiple subjects and we will spare no resource in bringing each of the responsible individuals to justice,” the agency said.

The detention was initially reported by Reuters. Last month, ShinyHunters stated in dark web communications and media exchanges that it had stolen between 2 and 3 terabytes of data related to FBI workers. The hackers asserted they exploited a new vulnerability in Oracle PeopleSoft, a human resources management system.

This development follows a separate arrest earlier in the month. On September 15, Dutch National Police and the FBI detained a 24-year-old man from Amsterdam on suspicion of being a ShinyHunters member. That arrest preceded the group’s public announcement regarding the FBI job site hack, which was first reported by 404 Media on September 22.

Although Dutch police did not publicly identify the suspect, sources confirmed to CBS News that he is Pepijn van der Stap. In a statement to Reuters, ShinyHunters denied that Van der Stap had any association with the group and criticized Dutch police as incompetent.