A teen hacked into the private AOL account of CIA director John Brennan and posted his findings on Twitter. The hacker, identified as @phphax on the social-media platform, claims that he was not alone, saying that he worked with classmates from high school in a team they call CWA, which stands for Crackas With Attitude.
To everybody trying to write storys on this, this wasn't just me, it was all of #CWA
— cracka (@phphax) October 19, 2015
The contents of Brennan's personal account held his 47-page application for top-security clearance, including social security numbers and identifying information of over a dozen American officials. What caught more attention was the email regarding "harsh interrogation techniques" to be used on terrorism suspects. Federal investigators are looking into the case, trying to locate and identify the hacker.
The hacker contacted the New York Post first to brag about his achievements. The New York-based news site says that the anonymous teen described himself as an "American high school student who is not Muslim and was motivated by opposition to US foreign policy and support for Palestine."
To verify that he was indeed the hacker, the teen posted "CWA owns John Brennan of the CIA" on Twitter to prove that he had control over the @phphax account. Also, on the hacker's Twitter account, he is using the hashtags #FreePalestine and #FreeGaza.
When I'm gone, just know I wanted peace,freedom and fairness for other people. #FreePalestine #FreeGaza — cracka (@phphax) October 20, 2015
To pull it off, the hacker apparently tricked Verizon personnel to acquire info about Brennan and then deceived AOL to reset the CIA director's password. On Friday, Brennan's account was no longer active according to him.
The unnamed teen allegedly gained access to Homeland Security SecretaryJeh Johnson's account as well.
This is not the first case of a top U.S. official using a private email, as Hillary Clinton was using one while she was the secretary of state.
The CIA released an official statement concerning the matter, saying that it is aware of the reports of its director's AOL account being hacked and officials have taken up matters to the appropriate authorities.
It seems that the FBI and other federal agencies are looking to push criminal charges against the teen hacker.
Photo: David Michalczuk | Flickr
