13-YEAR-OLD POT SMOKING KID HACKS SPY CHIEF’S AOL ACCOUNT
Remember John Brennan? He’s the head of U.S. president Barack Obama‘s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He’s the guy who was busted lying about the government’s torture program. And about spying on Congress.
Anyway, this week his AOL account got hacked … by a 13-year-old who described himself as a “fervently pro-Palestine, pot-smoking, teenage hacker.”
Damn. While all that sinks in … people still have AOL accounts?
How’d he the hacker do it? According to Wired, he “obtained access by posing as a Verizon worker to trick another employee into revealing the spy chief’s personal information.”
Nice … so it was something incredibly complicated, in other words.
“The hackers described how they were able to access sensitive government documents stored as attachments in Brennan’s personal account because the spy chief had forwarded them from his work email,” the Wired piece continued.
Uh-oh …
Many of the documents were posted online, too …
… forcing Brennan to eventually delete his account.
Yeah … and you thought it was bad when Hillary Clinton was sending sensitive information on a private server? Brennan has now been busted forwarding stuff on a web-based server.
Thank God taxpayers spend billions of dollars on cyber-security, right?
20 comments
It’s time these half witted “public servants” started getting beat down for using their private email accounts to conduct business. Sadly, the only thing that will come out of this is that they’ll go to greater lengths to hide their private email use.
“Petraus used the old “type the email but don’t hit send” technique to get his stuff to his paramour – an idea he got from Al Queida, knowing full well that we (the NSA and DIA) were all over that technique.”
Could you explain that further for the non-IT?
… the old “type the email but don’t hit send” technique…
TBG even tried reading this aloud in his best Maxwell Smart voice, but still doesn’t *get* it.
Please ‘splain, Col.
Basically he’s talking about Petraeus and his side dish using a joint email account like a drop box. You don’t hit send, let the correspondence go to “draft”, and the significant other logs on after you log out and reads your note with no server bouncing.
BUT, they are still being logged by IP address, so with the NSA’s god like computing power and ability to use the secret courts to force IP’s, email proivders, etc. to share info, they basically flag/watch accounts that don’t send mail, because apparently terrorists were using the tactic as well.
Sure, as you know, “sent” emails travel via the internet from one account to another, leaving a trail and they are relatively easy to intercept and read. While they are generally encoded (made into a digital message) they are not encrypted (scrambled in such a manner as to require a “digital key”to read) (when you see the little lock icon in your address bar or are using a site that begins “https” (like your bank’s website) you are generally transmitting encoded and encrypted data.
To get around the NSA’s “hacking and tracking” years ago, “clever people” would create an account and share the login and password with anyone they wanted to share info or data with. Then they would login, write their email and save it as a draft but not send it. Then the person they wanted to read it would login and look in the draft file to read the message. Once they were done, they’d delete the draft message. This worked until the NSA caught on (watched accounts with lots of logins but no sent messages were suspicious)
This system has many advantages, several accounts on several networks could be created before beginning an operation giving the “clever people” the ability to quickly change accounts trying to stay one step ahead. Newer “hacking and tracking” systems got around this using keyword broad spectrum searches which looked in all file locations reachable. This caused the “clever people” to go to code word messages and so the game began again.
Truly “clever people” use multiple means to move messages these days eschewing digital systems whenever possible. Bin Ladin was found by following his message man. More than one Predator was able to be targeted because a satellite phone used by a “clever person” was being watched..
You are the bomb!
So he basically is on record advocating for war crimes.
Hmmm, let that sink in.
He can advocate for the same crimes that Japanese officers were sent to death for after WW2 and most likely not suffer any consequences, while Snowden can be sent to jail, or perhaps even killed, for exposing crimes of the US government against its people.
Things are truly upside down.
Execution is only a punishment for war crimes when you’re on the losing side.
Lulz!
No amount of security in the world will save you from a poor choice and a lack of common sense. I’m sure the CIA spends millions and millions on all kinds of security hardware and software but an AOL account owned by a functional retard is probably the only thing less secure than Hillary Clinton’s email server.
The ubiquitousness of the computer industry and and the perils of forfeiting the right to your privacy to unknown entities such as mail systems and everyday online financial transactions can lead to the ruination of of your personal and financial well-being.
I need put anything in email that could be ruinous to my reputation and financial. I am even hesitant at times to order goods and services online. Never open an email unless you are sure of its origin.Just get a good online protection service and be careful who you deal with.
The Agency did not get “punked.” The idiotic buffoon currently running the Agency got punked. If Brennan sent a single classified doc to a freaking AOL account, he needs to go. The SPO’s working the front gate at Langley know better than that…
Nice dodge.
Not a dodge at all. Surely you understand the difference between hacking into the system at Langley (which doesn’t even have outward-facing connectivity of any kind) and breaking into a damn AOL account? Come on, mi amigo…
If you have an impenetrable fortress with a public access door in the back, it isn’t an impenetrable fortress.
Speaking of dodges…
The CIA Director (if reports are accurate) is obviously a moron. That doesn’t mean the Agency got “punked.” The onformation protection program at the CIA is world class, but no system can survive even a single, well connected moron on the inside; such is the inherent weakness of that game. Of course, this is compounded greatly when the insider moron sits in the corner office.
An organization is as incompetent as its weakest link
That’s sweet. Please show me a single organization of any real size that doesn’t contain a single moron or otherwise incompetent person. The CIA has more than 20,000 employees, and there are, like everywhere else, some morons scattered around in there.
so you’re saying count the clowns?
No, just that your premise is a little off. Of course, they don’t call them the “Clowns in Action” without reason (sometimes)…
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