Schoolboy hacked email and gained access to personal data of the head of the US National Intelligence



    According to US media, the head of the US National Intelligence Service, James Klepper, was the victim of hackers who were able to crack his personal email and gain access to personal network accounts.

    What happened


    Motherboard reporters were contacted by a hacker under the nickname Cracka - he stated that he was able to access a number of accounts belonging to Klepper, including his personal email (as well as Klepper's wife's email), an account in the Internet service provider’s system, as well as the head’s home phone number special services. As a result, as the hacker stated, he managed to change the settings so that every phone call to Klepper’s house was redirected to the office of the Movement for the Liberation of Palestine .

    “I’m sure they didn’t even understand that they were hacked,” Cracka said in an online chat with journalist Lorenzo Fraceschini-Bicchierai. However, a spokeswoman for the US National Intelligence Service said the agency and Klepper himself were aware of the hack and transmitted the information to the relevant authorities. He refused to provide any further details. The FBI also declined to comment on the attack on Klepper.

    The hacker also provided the journalist with a telephone number, which he claims belongs to Klepper. When Franceschini called him, the telephone was picked up by Paul Larudee, co-founder of the Palestine Liberation Movement. He said that calls “to Klepper’s home number” arrive at his office for an hour. According to him, one of the callers said that he was in the house of a senior intelligence officer.

    According to public information, the telephone number transmitted by the hacker really belongs to Klepper’s house. Cracka also provided reporters with another issue, which he claims to belong to the wife of National Intelligence Director Susan. When the journalist called this number, the woman picked up the phone, claiming that she “is not Susan, but she will call back,” but this did not happen.

    Also in confirmation of the fact of hacking, Cracka presented a number of screenshots of Kleppers' personal mail records as well as their Verizon FiOS account, but journalists could not confirm their authenticity on their own.



    The hacker also sent logs of telephone calls to Klepper’s home number on the list - the list included the number of Vonna Heaton , the head of Ball Aerospace, who used to be one of the leaders of the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. By calling this number, the journalist did contact Vonne Heaton, however, she refused to answer any questions.

    Schoolboy vs. National Intelligence


    The Cracka hacker, who attacked the head of the US National Intelligence Agency, is a member of a group called Crackas With Attitude (CWA). In October 2015, it was this group that took responsibility for hacking the email account of CIA Director John Brennan. Attackers also managed to gain access to several online tools and portals used by American intelligence agencies. After gaining fame last year, Cracka and the CWA announced that their actions were aimed at supporting the "liberation" of Palestine.

    According to Cracka's own words, he is only 15 years old, and he studies at one of the American schools, and only six hackers are included in the CWA. They are all schoolchildren. Describing the hacking of a mail account in John Brennan’s AOL service, Cracka stated that "even a five-year-old could have access to it."

    He heads a large and powerful intelligence agency, but he was circled around his finger and hacked by ordinary schoolchildren.

    In a Motherboard commentary, Michael Adams, an information security expert who had worked for the U.S. Special Operations Command for more than 20 years, said the attack “looked more like cheating with social engineering than a real hack,” adding that “almost every serious hacking begins with social engineering. ”

    In addition, the expert expressed extreme bewilderment by the fact that Klepper, as the head of the National Intelligence Agency of the United States, did not make much effort to hide information about his phone and home address - this data can be easily detected using popular search engines like Google.

    “If I were the Director of National Intelligence of the United States of America, no living soul would know where I live, and certainly no one would have my home number,” Adams said.

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