Autistic teenager impersonates CIA chief, hacks into cyber systems of ethically-challenged FBI, Intel community
children are accessing the government’s secrets online.
History books may someday reveal that during the last year of President Barack Obama’s administration, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other intelligence, counter-intelligence and law enforcement agencies were kept busy spying on American conservatives, Republican candidates, non-profit political organizations and other non-criminal, non-threat targets.
For example. a notorious pro-Palestinian hacking group behind a series of embarrassing hacks against United States intelligence officials and leaked the personal details of 20,000 FBI agents, 9,000 Department of Homeland Security officers, and some number of DoJ staffers in 2015.
What shocked investigators about this group was the fact that the leader of these hackers was only 15-years-old when he used “social engineering” to impersonate the CIA director and unauthorized access to highly sensitive information from his Leicestershire, Great Britain, home, revealed during a court hearing on Tuesday.
Kane Gamble, now 18-year-old, the British teen hacker targeted then CIA director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, FBI deputy director Mark Giuliano, as well as other senior FBI figures.
Between June 2015 and February 2016, Gamble posed as Brennan and tricked call center and helpline staff into giving away broadband and cable passwords, using which the team also gained access to plans for intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iran.
The teenager also taunted his victims and their families, released their personal details, bombarded them with calls and messages, downloaded and installed pornography onto their computers and took control of their iPads and TV screens.
He also made hoax calls to Brennan’s home and took control of his wife’s iPad.
At one point, Gamble also sent DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson a photograph of his daughter and said he would f*** her, phoned his wife, leaving a voicemail message which said: “Hi Spooky, am I scaring you?,” and even managed to get the message “I own you” on the couple’s home television.
Gamble was arrested in February 2016 at his council home in Coalville, UK, and last October he pleaded guilty to 8 charges of “performing a function with intent to secure unauthorized access” and 2 charges of “unauthorized modification of computer material.”
Gamble said he targeted the US government because he was “getting more and more annoyed about how corrupt and cold-blooded the US Government” was and “decided to do something about it.”
Gamble’s defense said he was technically gifted but emotionally immature and has an autistic spectrum disorder, at the time of his offending, he had the mental development of a 12 or 13-year-old.
Also, the defense said, at no point did Gamble attempt to profit from his actions.
Out of 10 counts, Gamble previously admitted 8 charges of performing a function with intent to secure unauthorised access.
The teenager will be sentenced when the hearing resumes at a later date.
Two other members of Crackas With Attitude hacking group, Andrew Otto Boggs, aka “INCURSIO,” 22, of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and Justin Gray Liverman, aka “D3F4ULT,” 24, of Morehead City, North Carolina, were arrested on charges related to their alleged roles in the computer hacking of several senior U.S. government officials and U.S. government computer systems. They have already been sentenced to five years in federal prison.
