A self-proclaimed teenage hacker and his friend have infiltrated the personal AOL account of CIA Director, John Brennan, causing major embarrassment for the “intelligence” agency. The hacker reported his exploits to the New York Post, including sensitive evidence.
Documents obtained include a 47-page application for top-secret security clearance, Social Security numbers and personal information of more than a dozen top American intelligence officials, and a government letter about the use of “harsh interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspects, the hacker told the New York Post.
One law enforcement source told the NY Post that an investigation is underway, and criminal charges are possible. In the source’s statement:
“I think they’ll want to make an example out of him to deter people from doing this in the future.” The source adds, “I can’t believe he did this to the head of the CIA. [The] problem with these older-generation guys is that they don’t know anything about cybersecurity, and as you can see, it can be problematic.”
The hacker spoke with the NY Post more than once, and described himself as an American high school student who is not Muslim, but supports Palestine and opposes U.S. policies. Although he never released his name, he made good on a promise in which he tweeted “CWA owns John Brennan of the CIA” from the @phphax (unfortunately, the page doesn’t exist anymore) Twitter account, verifying his control over it.
The stolen documents came as attachments found on around 40 emails that were breached from Brennan’s AOL account on Oct. 12th. The hacker used a tactic called “social engineering” in which he tricked the workers at Verizon into providing the CIA director’s personal information, and then duped AOL into resetting Brennan’s password. The account was disabled Friday.
The hacker has apparently been prank-calling Brenan since August, once even reciting his Social Security number. According to the hacker:
“He waited a tiny bit and hung up.”
In a statement from the CIA:
“We are aware of the reports that have surfaced on social media and have referred the mattered to the appropriate authorities.”
This Article (CIA Director Hacked By an Alleged Teen) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
Sources:
Khandelwal, Swati. The Hacker News. Oct 19, 2015. (http://thehackernews.com/2015/10/cia-director-hacked.html)
Messing, Philip and Schram, Jamie. New York Post. Oct 18, 2015. (http://nypost.com/2015/10/18/stoner-high-school-student-says-he-hacked-the-cia/)
Thielman, Sam. The Guardian. Oct 19, 2015. (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/19/cia-director-john-brennan-email-hack-high-school-students)
“referred the mattered to the appropriate authorities” drone team zulu? LOL
Daz Face In Disappointment lmfao (a bit sad John??)
They’re probably gonna hire that little punk now x)
Did you hear that loud thump? That was the CIA being knocked off of their throne XD