Iran-linked hackers have publicly claimed ⁠the ​breach of FBI Director ​Kash ​Patel‘s personal email, ⁠publishing photographs of ‌the director and his purported resume, news agency Reuters reported.

A Justice Department official confirmed ‌that Patel’s inbox had been breached and said the material published online appeared authentic. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The hackers did not immediately respond to messages, the report added.

On their website, the ​hacker group ​Handala Hack Team ⁠said Patel “will now find his name among the ‌list of successfully hacked victims.”

The hackers published a series of personal photographs of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique convertible, and ​making a ​face while taking a picture ⁠of himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum, Reuters reported.

Also Read | Trump weighs ‘final blow’ against Iran? Pentagon prepares 10,000 troops, secret plans to seize critical oil hubs: Report

Handala, which calls itself a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers, is considered by Western researchers to be one of several personas used by ⁠Iranian government cyberintelligence ⁠units.

Handala recently claimed the hack of Michigan-based medical devices and services ⁠provider ‌Stryker on March 11, claiming to ​have deleted a massive trove ‌of company data. Indianexpress.com was not able to independently authenticate the Patel emails, but the ‌personal Gmail address ​that ​Handala ​claims to have broken into matches the address linked to Patel in ​previous data breaches preserved by the ⁠dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs.

A sample of the material uploaded by the hackers and ‌reviewed ⁠by Reuters appears to show a mix of personal and work correspondence ​dating between 2010 and 2019.