Pot-Smoking Teen Hacker Says He Broke Into CIA Director’s Email to Free Palestine

BY ELIAS GROLL

OCTOBER 19, 2015 

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Pot-Smoking Teen Hacker Says He Broke Into CIA Director’s Email to Free Palestine

A fervently pro-Palestine, pot-smoking, teenage hacker claims to have hacked the AOL email account of CIA Director John Brennan.

The hacker in question, who goes by the moniker “cracka,” is a member of the hacker collective “Crackas With Attitude,” which appears to include at least one other member, who calls himself “cubed.” Media accounts about the alleged hack have so far focused on cracka’s role, but he told Foreign Policy via Twitter that the operation was very much the work of the collective. The hackers claim to have gotten into Brennan’s email by duping Verizon into providing them with the CIA chief’s personal information, which was then used to reset his AOL password.

Cracka has claimed that he has found a copy of Brennan’s application for a security clearance. The hackers have so far posted what they claim to be a list of Brennan’s email contacts and a list of high-level government employees, along with their Social Security numbers and other personal information. That list of government employees includes Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. A Twitter account — since suspended — purporting to belong to the hacking collective posted what was described as a call log for Deputy National Security Advisor Avril Haines.

Cracka told Gawker’s Sam Biddle via IM that “since only 13 [sic] i am pretty hype about it.”

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said, “We are aware of the reports that have surfaced on social media and have referred the matter to the appropriate authorities.” The FBI declined to comment.

Johnson, the DHS secretary, appears to have been heavily targeted by the hackers. Cracka claimed he infiltrated Johnson’s Comcast account and posted the message “Stop Wars” on his home television screen. He has also posted detailed information on Johnson’s family, including the address of his Georgetown home, his wife’s name and phone number, and the identity of his son’s girlfriend.

Cracka claims to have set up a call-forwarding system so that when Johnson’s parents called him, they were forwarded to an antiwar organization.

But it is the takeover of Brennan’s email account that is the most audacious of cracka’s alleged exploits. In multiple social media posts, he describes how he worked to maintain control over Brennan’s email account.

Cracka also claims to have unearthed documents in Brennan’s email showing the CIA engaged in torture during the war on terror but so far hasn’t posted any documents backing up those allegations.

He also claims to have found Brennan’s car insurance information:

So why is cracka going after the highest levels of the U.S. government? He says he’s acting on behalf of Palestine.