FBI Arrests Canadian Cybersecurity Executive in Hack Exposing FBI Employee Data
The FBI has arrested Edward Dubrovsky, a Canadian cybersecurity executive and ransomware expert, in the Philadelphia area in a hack investigation that exposed current and former FBI employees' data. He faces extortion and threat charges.
Dubrovsky has been transferred to the Eastern District of Texas for a scheduled detention hearing, court records and a law enforcement official said. FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest on Friday but did not disclose where it occurred or what role the man is suspected of playing in the hack. Patel also did not name Dubrovsky. CNN said it confirmed the defendant is believed to be tied to the FBI hack through multiple people familiar with the investigation.
A LinkedIn profile under Dubrovsky's name lists years of experience in the Canadian cybersecurity industry and describes him as a 'globally recognized cybersecurity expert.' An Ed Dubrovsky is also the author of a book on handling ransomware negotiations with cybercriminals.
The arrest follows an FBI inquiry into how such a critical security lapse happened. Senior FBI cyber official Brett Leatherman said last week that the FBI determined a contractor managing the bureau's jobs portal failed to update software 'explicitly issued to secure the platform.' The FBI has removed the contractor, he said.
The software in question is a human-resources platform made by Oracle, according to ShinyHunters. Google's Threat Intelligence Group said the hackers previously used a flaw in the software to attack targets in the education sector in May and June. But months later, the FBI contractor apparently still had not applied a security patch that was available for the software.
Security researcher Brian Krebs reported, citing the inmate locator at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website, that a 54-year-old Edward Dubrovsky is currently being held at a federal facility in Philadelphia.