Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan and the Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson have been hacked by a high-schooler. After news of the men’s email breach touched the Internet, it remained hush for a while, leaving folks to wonder if it actually took place. However, CBS News reports that law enforcement officials confirmed the story.
The hacker(s), under the Twitter handles @_CWA_ – now deactivated – and @phphax says that his reasoning for the hack was not for personal gain, but “because innocent people in Palestine are being killed daily.”
Find out more down bottom.
JaaiR (JR)
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The email accounts contained personal information, forwarded from Brennan and Johnson’s work account to their private accounts, such as social security numbers, psychological records, past drug use and pretty much anything else that could be found on a SF-86 application; used to conduct background checks and give security clearance in the White House – Brennan’s complete application was amongst the emails.
Aside from posting a spreadsheet showing this information, there was also links to a file that was allegedly Brennan’s contact list as well as a log of phone calls made by former CIA deputy director Avril Haines.
In a statement:
The CIA issued a statement Monday saying they are aware of the report. A DHS spokesman also issued a statement saying, “We don’t discuss the Secretary’s security information. We have forwarded this matter to the appropriate authorities.” The FBI declined to comment.
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QUESTIONS? Like, how does one get the email password to the leading security secretary. According to WIRED, it was simple. The teen, who has yet to be identified, posed as a Verizon representative. He first did a reverse look-up of Brennan’s telephone number, which lead them to the fact that he was a Verizon client, and then called the company to reset his password.
“[W]e told them we work for Verizon and we have a customer on scheduled callback,” he told WIRED. The caller told Verizon that he was unable to access Verizon’s customer database on his own because “our tools were down.”
After providing the Verizon employee with a fabricated employee Vcode—a unique code the he says Verizon assigns employees—they got the information they were seeking. This included Brennan’s account number, his four-digit PIN, the backup mobile number on the account, Brennan’s AOL email address and the last four digits on his bank card.
“[A]fter getting that info, we called AOL and said we were locked out of our AOL account,” he said. “They asked security questions like the last 4 on [the bank] card and we got that from Verizon so we told them that and they reset the password.” AOL also asked for the name and phone number associated with the account, all of which the hackers had obtained from Verizon.
It took officials three days before they could close out the email accounts.
Since Hillary Clinton received so much backlash for having a personal email account, I am wondering if these gentlemen will get the same treatment.
#IJS: If they got Jared Fogle, they surely can catch someone who pulled a classic girlfriend looking for information on a cheating boyfriend move.
