In Brief

The merchandise website of FBI director Kash Patel was taken offline on Friday after reports that it had been hijacked by hackers trying to infect visitors with malware, as first reported by Straight Arrow News.

As of this writing, the website of Based Apparel is offline. On Thursday, an X user who goes by Debbie posted that the brand’s website apparently had malware on it, in particular an infostealer, a type of malicious software designed to infect victims and steal their credentials and passwords. A security researcher later analyzed the malware. 

Brand Apparel could not be reached for comment. TechCrunch emailed a Gmail address previously associated with Patel, but we have not received an answer.  

This was not a good week for security for MAGA-associated business ventures. 

On Friday, President Trump’s cell phone provider and maker of Trump Mobile confirmed that the company left customers’ personal information exposed online, including names, email addresses, mailing addresses, cell numbers, and order identifiers. The confirmation came days after a researcher alerted two YouTubers who had purchased Trump Mobile’s phone that their personal data was exposed on the internet.