James Altucher:

ShinyHunters Claims It Hacked the FBI and Stole Data on Thousands of Agents

ShinyHunters, a criminal hacking group, claimed Tuesday that it breached the FBI's online jobs portal and stole sensitive personal data on tens of thousands of current and former agents, applicants, and their families.

Shinyhunters said the stolen records include names, agent statuses, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, and in some cases spouse information including Social Security numbers. The group said it made off with two to three terabytes of data in total.

The FBI confirmed the situation, saying it is "aware of claims regarding unauthorized activity affecting FBIjobs.gov and is currently investigating." The jobs site remained inaccessible Wednesday morning. The previous day, visitors to the site's homepage encountered a banner that declared "THIS SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED BY SHINYHUNTERS."

ShinyHunters said it used a zero-day flaw in Oracle's PeopleSoft software as its entry point and further claims to have penetrated the FBI's criminal justice, HR, and other internal services.

ShinyHunters said it targeted the FBI in response to a May advisory in which the bureau warned that the group used harassment tactics against victims and their families, including threatening calls and swatting. The group demanded the FBI retract that advisory within a week or face further consequences.

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Greg Guenthner:

Bitcoin Falls Below $84,000 as Hot U.S. Data Sends Yields Higher

Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $84,000 on Wednesday after a surprise jump in U.S. business activity sent Treasury yields higher. The drop came within about an hour of the data release. It reversed a morning rally that had carried Bitcoin above $87,000.

The S&P Global flash Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) is an early monthly survey of about 1,150 U.S. companies. A reading above 50 means business activity is growing.

September's composite reading, announced today, rose to 58.4 from 56.0 in August. That is the fastest growth since July 2021. The manufacturing gauge jumped to 57.0 from 53.9, its strongest since May 2022.

However, the report also flagged rising costs. Input prices climbed at the fastest rate since October 2022 as oil pushed fuel and transport bills higher. Meanwhile, hiring hit its quickest pace since June 2022.

The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.058% after the release. It had closed at 4.96% on Tuesday, according to the Treasury. Higher yields make assets that pay no interest, such as Bitcoin, less attractive. Naturally, Bitcoin is down.

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Chris Campbell:

Elon's Lucky Day

Eighteen years ago this Monday, a small rocket called Falcon 1 reached orbit on its fourth try. On September 28, exactly 18 years later, SpaceX will try to put Starship in orbit for the first time.

Starship has flown 13 times. It's been to space and even carried satellites. But every previous flight was suborbital, and Flight 14 is the first attempt to cross that line. Starship will climb into orbit, circle the planet about six times, and release 26 working Starlink satellites. Then it will fire an engine, drop out of orbit, and splash down in the Pacific off Chile.

If Starship works, Starlink gets faster. And something else happens: The timeline for putting data centers in space gets a lot shorter. According to research firm Mach33, somewhere between 2029 and 2032, building computing power in orbit gets cheaper than building it on Earth.

SpaceX has asked permission to launch up to a million satellites. Mach33 expects SpaceX to finish rolling them out around 2030. After that, SpaceX needs a new job for its rockets and a new place to put its cash. Space data centers show up right on schedule.

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