Russian Hackers Claim They Released Data Stolen From ATF In Cyberattack

A Russian cybergang published data it claimed to have stolen during an August cyberattack on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed Wednesday that ATF had been hit with a ransomware attack, when reached by the Daily Caller News Foundation for comment about a social media post from Gun Owners of America (GOA) regarding the situation. In a Monday post on X, ATF Director Robert Cekada declined to provide additional details.

“We have not confirmed the authenticity, nature, or scope of the material claimed to have been released today, so I cannot provide additional details at this time,” Cekada said. “Our team is moving quickly with DOJ and other federal partners to assess these claims and take appropriate actions. Again, the affected system was separate from ATF’s enterprise network. I wanted you to hear this directly from me.”

“After a 72 hour countdown expired, Russian ransomware gang Qilin briefly published 6.3GB of data it hacked from ATF. The data includes criminal investigation target names, phone numbers, IP addresses, iCloud data, Cellebrite phone dumps, and more,” GOA posted on X Monday.

Cekada did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment or information from the DCNF. ATF identified the compromised system as the CALEA system, which involves the use of wiretaps under the terms of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in a Monday release.

“ATF cannot confirm the authenticity, nature, or scope of the material at issue at this time and is working with the Department of Justice and other federal partners to assess the claims and take appropriate actions,” ATF said in the statement. “As ATF previously stated, the affected system was not connected to – and the incident did not affect – ATF’s other operational systems. ATF’s ability to carry out its mission has not been impacted. Given the ongoing review and investigation, ATF cannot provide additional details at this time.

ATF keeps at least 866 million digitalized records from federally licensed firearms dealers (FFLs), according to Reason Magazine, with some pro-Second Amendment groups stating that they believe the number of records involved exceeds 1 billion. The digitalized records have been the subject of allegations from pro-Second Amendment organizations that the agency created a “backdoor gun registry.”