June 12, 2026 / 7:38 AM EDT
/ AFP
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An Iran-linked hacker group claims to have breached FBI drones and has threatened to target the World Cup that kicked off on Thursday, a monitoring group said Friday. The SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors jihadist groups, published a statement from Handala saying they've had access "for months" to "every image and every suspect" captured by first-person view (FPV) drones used by the FBI. The hackers said the drones featured facial recognition and license plate screening deployed for counterterrorism. "Better tighten your World Cup security, we don't like some of those teams at all. Don't forget: FPVs are everywhere; you never know when one might end up right in your team's bus," Handala said in the statement quoted by SITE. The FBI is deploying drones around World Cup stadiums to protect against unauthorized aircraft. Drone flights will be banned over U.S. stadiums hosting matches, as well as over fan events related to the tournament.The Justice Department has previously warned of the potential for cyberattacks by Iranian actors following the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran in February that triggered the Middle East War.
