Teen Hacker who had earlier hacked into CIA Director’s emails, breaks into US National Intelligence Director’s email accounts
Hackers have now turned their attention to the personal online accounts of James Clapper, the director of US National Intelligence just months after breaching the personal email of John Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Citing an intelligence official, the Associated Press confirmed that the personal email and other accounts connected to Clapper have been hacked.
DNI spokesman Brian Hale said on Tuesday that Clapper’s office is aware of the hacking and has reported the incident to appropriate authorities. He declined to provide other details.
An individual not authorized to discuss details who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was aware of the hacking incident before it was first reported on Tuesday by Motherboard.
Motherboard reported that the same teenage hacker who broke into Brennan’s account also targeted Clapper. The hacker, who goes by the name ‘Cracka’ online, and is a part of the “Crackas with Attitude” group, claimed that officials were not aware of the attack.
The alleged hacker claimed to have broken into accounts connected to Clapper including his home telephone, Internet and his wife Susan’s Yahoo email, Cracka told Motherboard.
The hacker also stated that he was able to reroute calls intended for Clapper’s home phone to the Free Palestine Movement, a pro-Palestine advocacy group.
Cracka also told Motherboard that he changed the settings in Clapper’s Verizon FiOS account so that every call to his home phone was forwarded to the Free Palestine Movement.
Motherboard said Cracka provided them with what was said to be Clapper’s home phone number and when called, Paul Larudee, co-founder of the Free Palestine Movement answered.
Brennan said in October that he was annoyed that someone hacked his personal email account and publicized sensitive data, including his contact list and his wife’s Social Security number.
He called the hack an “outrage” that highlighted the challenges faced by intelligence and national security communities in a more connected world.
“What it does is to underscore just how vulnerable people are to those who want to cause harm,” he said in October, according to a CNN account of a speech at an intelligence conference. “We really have to evolve to deal with these new threats and challenges.”
The hacker has said he is a high school student protesting U.S. policy. He said he fooled Verizon into providing him access to Brennan’s account.
Meanwhile, security expert Michael Adams, who worked for US Special Operations Command, said it was “insane” that Clapper’s personal information wasn’t hidden better.
“If I’m the Director of National Intelligence of the United States of America nobody is going to know where the f*** I live, nobody is going to have my goddamn phone number or address,” he told Motherboard.
Until now, it is not clear if anything other than Clapper’s some personal information anything else has been exposed. When Brennan’s accounts were hacked, documents and draft papers detailing the CIA chief’s thoughts on torture and Iran were stolen and published later by WikiLeaks.
