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The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department for Homeland Security suffered from a massive hack over the weekend.

Roughly 30,000 FBI and DHS employees had their personal contact information leaked, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and job titles. According to the FBI, the released information was not a threat to individuals or national security. Officials likened the breach to , according to the Guardian.聽

鈥淭his unauthorized access is still under investigation; however, there is no indication at this time that there is ,鈥� Justice聽Department spokesman Peter Carr told CNN. 鈥淭he department takes this very seriously and is continuing to deploy protection and defensive measures to safeguard information.鈥�

Linked to a pro-Palestinian Twitter account, the hack is likely the latest breach in an evolving trend of political hacktivism.

The FBI and DHS hack, which targeted agent and employee information, resembles previous political hacks on US intelligence agencies aiming to raise attention for the 鈥淔ree Palestine鈥� movement, such as the hack of . CIA director John Brennan and DHS secretary Jeh Johnson have also suffered from personal hacks.

However, hacking as a form of political and social protest has a much longer history. In 1998, Stefan Wray, professor of digital media at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote in a paper that 鈥渉acktivism, as defined across the full spectrum from relatively harmless computerized activism to potentially dangerous resistance to future war, i.鈥�

So far, in the nearly two decades since, his predictions have been accurate.

Political hacktivism has been prevalent abroad. In 2010, hackers protesting proposals by the Australian government to limit access to specific websites and denied access to them. As recently as January 2016, Japanese automobile manufacturer Nissan found of an attack from hackers protesting the Japanese government's stance on whale hunting.

Hacktivism had a similar impact on US politics, including more than in 2012 in response to the ACTA and SOPA bills.

The methods of hacktivism, as predicted by Mr. Wray, are also evolving.

鈥淥ne reason why it is difficult to get a firm grip on hacktivism's direction," he says, "is that hacktivism will evolve in response to changing global economic and political conditions.鈥�

The leaking of personal information used in the recent FBI and DHS hacks could be a sign of one such evolution.

In contrast to the hacktivism performed against the Australian government in 2010 or the US government in 2012, the FBI and DHS hacks did not attempt to take down the agency website, but focused more on hacking inside to find personnel data. A similar approach was taken by hackers who attacked Ashley Madison, the dating website for married men and women, in 2015. In all, personal information about 32 million Ashley Madison users was stolen and released online.聽

The information about roughly 20,000 FBI staffers and 9,000 DHS employees was gained through a variety of methods combining hacking and social engineering.

Compromising the email account of one Depart of Justice employee, the hackers attempted to log into a DOJ web portal. After being unable to access it, the hackers called the relevant department and were walked through the process after identifying themselves using stolen information, according to Motherboard, .

鈥淪o I called up, told them I was new and I didn't understand how to get past [the portal],鈥� one self-professed hacker told Motherboard. 鈥淭hey asked if I had a token code, I said no, they said that's fine 鈥� just use our one.鈥�

After learning of the social engineering behind the hack, US intelligence officials admitted there was a problem in the system.聽

鈥�,鈥� officials told The Guardian.聽