UnHack with Drex DeFord podcast

Who Put Umbreon on the FBI Jobs Site | 2 Minute Drill with Drex DeFord

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In late September a giant picture of Umbreon, the black Pokemon with the yellow rings, showed up on the page where someone applies to be an FBI agent. Pepijn van der Stap, 24, from the Netherlands, used that name online a few years ago. He stole databases, sold them on hacker forums, and extorted the companies he hit. Drex DeFord puts the take somewhere between 1.5 million and 2.7 million euros. Van der Stap confessed in 2023, received a four-year sentence, and got out in late 2025. He worked as a software engineer at Hadrian, volunteered with a Dutch nonprofit that warns people about security holes, and most recently was the offensive security lead at Neo Security, a firm that breaks in on purpose and reports the holes. On September 9 he told Brian Krebs he was trying to turn his life around. About a week later he stopped answering messages. Dutch police arrested him in an investigation into ShinyHunters. The FBI called him a leader of that gang.

ShinyHunters claimed the FBI website hack. They claimed a PeopleSoft bug got them in, and they claimed data on thousands of agents, applicants, and families, including Social Security numbers. The FBI continues to investigate those claims. Brian Krebs's sources describe an ongoing fight between van der Stap and the group's current leader, a teenager in Amman, Jordan, who goes by Rey, over who controlled the ShinyHunters name and its stolen data. Those sources treat the oversized Umbreon as Rey's way of pinning the FBI hack on the Dutchman. Reuters reported on October 3 that Jordanian authorities detained Rey and that he is now helping the FBI find other members. Dutch police also reported evidence on van der Stap's laptop that he may have been planning a couple of murders. Drex keeps that separate from the ShinyHunters story. ShinyHunters has been hitting healthcare all year. Drex puts Medtronic at about 3.8 million people and AdaptHealth at about 4.1 million patients, and he names McKesson and One Medical. Health-ISAC put out a warning about the group in July. The move he flags is still a phone call: somebody who sounds right asks the help desk for a password reset. The people hired to test that desk have reached some of the most sensitive access a health system hands out. A second chance in this field needs a background check and a short leash. When a name shows up at the scene, painted in big yellow rings, the question is who put the clue there.

Remember, Stay a Little Paranoid.

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