The teenager claimed to have hacked the CIA director’s personal account

An American teenager, protesting against US foreign policy, hacked CIA Director John Brennan’s personal AOL account and gained access to confidential data. Using social engineering, he infiltrated the accounts of other high-ranking officials, revealing personal information and documents. The article examines how the young man committed the crime and what consequences such incidents may have for national security.

What started it all

Hillary Clinton’s email scandal didn’t stop CIA Director John Brennan from continuing to store work documents on his personal AOL account, according to the teenager who hacked his account.

According to the hacker, Brennan’s private account contained confidential files, including a 47-page request for access to top-secret data. The teenager told The Post that he found other critical emails in the hacked account that contained the Social Security numbers and personal information of more than a dozen senior U.S. intelligence officials, as well as a government document on “harsh interrogation techniques” for terror suspects.

The FBI and federal agencies are currently investigating the incident, and according to law enforcement sources, criminal charges against the hacker are possible.

“I think they’ll want to make an example out of him to deter people from doing things like this in the future,” said the source, who described the situation as “just wild” and “crazy.” “I can’t believe he did this to the head of the CIA,” the source added. “[The problem] with these older guys is that they don’t know anything about cyber security, and as you can see, that can be problematic.”

In a series of phone calls with The Post, the hacker described himself as a non-Muslim American high school student who was driven by opposition to US foreign policy and support for Palestine.

He would not reveal his name or where he lives, but followed through on a promise to tweet “CWA owns John Brennan of the CIA” to confirm his control of the @phphax Twitter account.

He explained that “CWA” stands for “Crackas With Attitude,” which he said applied to him and his classmate.

The hacker contacted The Post last week to talk about his daring act and share details. He claimed to have tweeted some of the stolen documents, as well as part of CIA Director John Brennan’s contact list. According to him, at the time of publication on Twitter, the Islamic declaration of faith was posted on the page – Shahada, which in translation sounds like: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” This further drew attention to the case, as the incident took on a political undertone.

The hacker said the downloaded documents were attached as attachments to about 40 emails he was able to read after Brennan’s account was hacked on October 12. It comes more than six months after the scandal erupted over Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal server for official emails during her tenure as secretary of state. The hacker hinted that even amid the high-profile debate over the security of confidential information, officials continue to allow similar risks by using unprofessional means of data storage and processing.

Explaining the methods that allowed him to get into the account, the teenager said he used what he calls “social engineering,” a set of techniques that tricked Verizon employees into revealing Brennan’s personal information and convinced AOL tech support to reset his password. After these manipulations, the teenager gained full access to the account.

The hacker also said Brennan’s account had been disabled on Friday after he repeatedly contacted him posing as an “American teenager” and “America’s top spy”. He defiantly noted that he even shared his Social Security number with Brennan, which he said caused the official to simply hang up, apparently embarrassed or even frightened by the leak of such information.

• “He waited a bit and hung up,” the hacker said.

He also accessed Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s Comcast online account and posted a redacted screenshot of the payment page. He claimed to have listened to Johnson’s voicemail.

• The CIA said in a statement: “We are aware of the messages that have appeared on social media and have referred the matter to the appropriate authorities.”