Nothing is safe from hackers, not even John Brennan, the director of the CIA. A teen hacker allegedly claims that he has broken into the top official's AOL account and had his hands on some highly-sensitive files for three days.
The hacker, who is under twenty years old, was the one to break the ice when he reported it to NY Post last week. According to him, he was not working alone. He told Wired that they did a 'reverse lookup' of Brennan's mobile phone number to know that e was a Verizon client. It only took them to disguise as a Verizon technician to call and ask the company about Brennan's account because they 'cannot access' customer database due to their 'tools being down'.
They gave a fabricated V-code, a unique employee code for Verizon workers, to the employee on the other end. What came afterwards is the information they needed such as Brennan's account number, AOL email address and last four digits on the bank card.
"After getting that info, we called AOL and said we were locked out of our AOL account," he told Wired. "They asked security questions like the last 4 on [the bank] card and we got that from Verizon so we told them that and they reset the password."
Files that were in Brennan's email included a 47-page application for top-secret security clearance, the hacker told The Post. Other information in the email were "Social Security numbers and personal information of more than a dozen top American intelligence officials, as well as a government letter about the use of "harsh interrogation techniques" on terrorism suspects," according to the hacker.
It was them who told Brennan that his email has been hijacked, as well. The director asked them how much they really wanted, but they just said, "We just want Palestine to be free and for you to stop killing innocent people."
Brennan had tried to access the account, but it was always re-hacked. It happened three times, according to the hacker. Last Friday, the CIA Director decided to have the email deleted. They held the email for three days.
The hackers posted a screenshot of the documents on their Twitter account, @phphax.
It is only safe to say that work emails should not be forwarded to any personal email, just like in the case of Brennan.
The federal agencies, including the FBI, are investigating the hackers. Some sources say that criminal charges are possible, in order to deter future act.
Do you also forward your work emails to your personal account?