Teenager Breaks Into Personal E-mail of US Security Official. Again.

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

A second high-ranking American intelligence official has had his personal accounts breached in roughly three months.

The personal online accounts of James Clapper, director of national intelligence, have been hacked. Motherboard, who were the first media source to report the break-in, reported that Clapper was targeted by that the same teenage hacker who broke into the account of John Brennan, Director of the CIA, belonging to a hackers’ group called “Crackas With Attitude”.

The group made headlines in October 2015, hacking Brennan’s email account and apparently getting access to several online tools and portals used by US law enforcement agencies. The hackers’ exploits prompted the FBI to issue an alert warning government officials of their attacks.

One of the hackers of the group has contacted Motherboard, boasting about his acts to one of the reporters. The teenager, aka. Cracka, said in an online chat: “I’m pretty sure they don’t even know they’ve been hacked.”

Brian Hale, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, told the Guardian that Clapper’s office was aware of the hacking and had reported the incident to appropriate authorities. An individual who spoke with the newspaper on condition of anonymity, said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was aware of the hacking incident before it was first reported on Tuesday by Motherboard.

Back in October, Brennan complained about the fact that the hacker publicized sensitive data, including his contact list and his wife’s government ID number.

The hacker has said he is a high school student who disagreed with U.S. policy, and that he managed to fool Verizon into giving him access to Brennan’s account.