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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTeen Who Hacked CIA Director’s Email Tells How He Did It
A HACKER WHO claims to have broken into the AOL account of CIA Director John Brennan says he obtained access by posing as a Verizon worker to trick another employee into revealing the spy chiefs personal information.
Using information like the four digits of Brennans bank card, which Verizon easily relinquished, the hacker and his associates were able to reset the password on Brennans AOL account repeatedly as the spy chief fought to regain control of it.
News of the hack was first reported by the New York Post after the hacker contacted the newspaper last week. The hackers described how they were able to access sensitive government documents stored as attachments in Brennans personal account because the spy chief had forwarded them from his work email.
The documents they accessed included the sensitive 47-page SF-86 application that Brennan had filled out to obtain his top-secret government security clearance. Millions of SF86 applications were obtained recently by hackers who broke into networks belonging to the Office of Personnel Management. The applications, which are used by the government to conduct a background check, contain a wealth of sensitive data not only about workers seeking security clearance, but also about their friends, spouses and other family members. They also include criminal history, psychological records and information about past drug use as well as potentially sensitive information about the applicants interactions with foreign nationalsinformation that can be used against those nationals in their own country.
The hacker, who says hes under 20 years old, told WIRED that he wasnt working alone but that he and two other people worked on the breach. He says they first did a reverse lookup of Brennans mobile phone number to discover that he was a Verizon customer. Then one of them posed as a Verizon technician and called the company asking for details about Brennans account.
http://www.wired.com/2015/10/hacker-who-broke-into-cia-director-john-brennan-email-tells-how-he-did-it/
The CIA director using AOL in 2015....lulz
marym625
(17,997 posts)Just wow! No words
Go Vols
(5,902 posts)Xipe Totec
(43,889 posts)We're online!
- Farnsworth
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)or was this just emails about birthdays, fishing trips and anniversaries i.e. a personal email account and not one used to transmit/receive classified material?
WhaTHellsgoingonhere
(5,252 posts)newfie11
(8,159 posts)Renew Deal
(81,853 posts)Loose policies at Verizon and single factor authentication.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)But using aol says a lot about the user and it's amusing.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/so-thats-who-uses-aol/
and this noob lectures us on cyber security.
Volaris
(10,269 posts)AOL. jeezuz ...
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)I'll reply after I update my geocities site. The blink tag is calling.
Volaris
(10,269 posts)Or they will start lobbying Congress for a department-wide systems upgrade..so they can you know, stay one step ahead of the terarists and China...
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)actually most hacking involves some "social engineering".