CIA director's personal email may have been breached – by a teenager
The hacker, a self-alleged American high school student, says he was able to access John Brennan's personal documents and voicemails.
CIA Director John Brennan listens during a news conference at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., Dec. 11, 2014. An anonymous hacker claims to have breached CIA Director John Brennan’s personal email account and has posted documents online, including a list of email addresses purportedly from Brennan’s contact file.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/File
CIA Director John Brennan’s personal email may have been hacked by an American high school student.
The Secret Service and FBI are currently looking into the alleged incident, which came to light late Sunday night when the New York Post reported that a “stoner” student claimed he was able to access Mr. Brennan’s AOL email account and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s Comcast account.
The CIA has not verified the extent the hack but does not think any classified information had been made vulnerable, according to CNN.
"We are aware of the media report, however as a matter of policy, we do not comment on the secretary's personal security," a DHS spokesman told Reuters.
The hacker posted documents from his purported hack on his Twitter account, @phphax, including a list of email addresses from what he says is Brennan’s contact list. Among other posted files he claims to have stolen are a log of phone calls by former deputy director Avril Haines and a spreadsheet of names, some are of senior intelligence officials, with corresponding social security numbers, which the hacker redacted.
The hacker says he also listened to Brennan’s voicemails and got ahold of his 47-page application for top-secret security clearance, known as an SF86. Millions of the same type of documents were stolen by Chinese hackers last year from the federal personnel office and they contain sensitive information such as foreign contacts and finances.
The application could not be found on the hacker’s Twitter account.
The hacker told the Post via telephone that he was motivated by his opposition to US foreign policy. He said he isn’t Muslim and supports Palestine. He did not reveal his name or where he’s from.
Allegedly, he used a method called “social engineering,” in which he got Brennan’s personal information from Verizon and then misled AOL into allowing him to reset Brennan’s password.
This report contains material from Reuters and the Associated Press.