UK Teen Who Hacked CIA Director Sentenced To 2 Years In Prison (gizmodo.com) 150
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: A British teenager who gained notoriety for hacking a number of high profile United States government employees including former CIA director John Brennan and former director of intelligence James Clapper was sentenced Friday to two years in prison. Eighteen-year-old Kane Gamble pleaded guilty to 10 separate charges, including eight counts of "performing a function with intent to secure unauthorized access" and two counts of "unauthorized modification of computer material," the Guardian reported.
Gamble, otherwise known by his online alias Cracka, was 15 at the time that he started his hacking campaigns. The alleged leader of a hacking group known as Crackas With Attitude (CWA), Gamble made it a point to target members of the U.S. government. The young hacker's group managed to successfully gain access to ex-CIA director John Brennan's AOL email account. The group hacked a number of accounts belonging to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, including his personal email, his wife's email, and his phone and internet provider account. The hackers allegedly made it so every call to Clapper's home phone would get forwarded to the Free Palestine Movement.
Gamble, otherwise known by his online alias Cracka, was 15 at the time that he started his hacking campaigns. The alleged leader of a hacking group known as Crackas With Attitude (CWA), Gamble made it a point to target members of the U.S. government. The young hacker's group managed to successfully gain access to ex-CIA director John Brennan's AOL email account. The group hacked a number of accounts belonging to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, including his personal email, his wife's email, and his phone and internet provider account. The hackers allegedly made it so every call to Clapper's home phone would get forwarded to the Free Palestine Movement.
Well ain't that rich... (Score:5, Insightful)
"performing a function with intent to secure unauthorized access"
James Clapper... the chap who oversaw the largest "intent to secure unauthorized access" campaign in the history of computing? The one which targeted people all around the world for "full take" access? THAT James Clapper?
When Clapper does 3 billion counts of whatever punishment this idiot kid will get, and goes away for the rest of his life, and the other people involved do similar time, then maybe we can think about what's appropriate for the idiot kid.
Until then it's simply more "rules for me but not for thee".
This is nothing less than a miscarriage of justice.
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> "rules for me but not for thee"
I think you meant it the other way around. But otherwise... yes.
And Brennan wasn't at fault (Score:5, Insightful)
The head of the CIA using an AOL account isn't as bad as it seems.
Brennan had an account with AOL from the beginning of the internet, and only used it for personal, trivial things. He had a strong password, and didn't reuse passwords. All his work-related communications were done elsewhere.
The "hack" was Gamble calling up AOL pretending to be Brennan, and having a sysadmin change the password.
Brennan did nothing wrong, and could not have prevented this. In fact, he even did things right by not having any business-related communications on that account.
I don't know the specifics of James Clappers' hack, but it was very likely the same. Assuming Clapper didn't have work-related stuff on his personal E-mail (and there's no reason to suspect that he did), this was nothing more than some high-level people being embarrassed by a kid hacker.
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Brennan did nothing wrong
Except the murdering that motivated the hack.
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If there is anything we have learned over the past few years it's that no account is trivial or unimportant. Too many services allow someone with control of an email address to reset passwords, log in to related sites and glean little bits of other information about you that can be used for further p0wnage.
Even if it's just personal correspondence with friends and family, getting into that account reveals all their email addresses, information about their schedules, their writing styles and habits (great fo
Revealed (Score:4, Insightful)
Even if it's just personal correspondence with friends and family, getting into that account reveals all their email addresses, information about their schedules, their writing styles and habits (great for spear phising attacks), all kinds of stuff.
In practice, given how seldom encryption is used in e-mail, that information isn't very well protected to begin with.
Nearly nobody outside off /. ers uses GPG, and S/MIME is only used in some peculiar corporate settings.
Thus nearly all e-mail are clear during the exchange.
Also not every single e-mail server uses encryption.
You might have setup your email client to use, e.g.: IMAPS and SMTP with STARTLS.
But there's no guarantee that you correspondent will have done similar (or uses a webmail over HTTPS).
And no guarantee either that the various machines along the chain between your SMTP server and your correspondent IMAP server will all use TLS/SSL secured links.
So a lot of what you've mention can be gather simply by looking at un-encrypted traffic, no need to hack anyone's computer.
Aside from the embarrassment of having an @aol.com email address, they don't support a lot of basic security tech like 2 factor auth and apparently don't give their support staff any security training, so should not be used for any purpose.
That's the major problem in my opiion :
- AOL is stuck in "early 90s" style of internet security.
- it's not the kid who should get locked in. it's AOL who should be fined for awefully bad security practices.
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The road to hell is paved with good intentions...
Interests of the USA ... (Score:1)
You mean like recruiting, arming, financing and training pretty much every terrorist group since WW2, and breeding dictators everywhere ...?
Which USA are you talking about? Cause it sure ain't yours, or that of 99% of Americans.
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Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi.
Re: Well ain't that rich... (Score:2)
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Why would he get "... a number of very lucrative job offers"? He appears to be somebody who managed to social engineer AOL and Comcast (which doesn't seem that hard, seeing as it happens so often). It doesn't even sound like he's a script kiddie, let alone a hacker. The only organisations that might hire him are British newspapers, but since the Leveson Enquity [wikipedia.org] even they're a little bit wary of hiring people to illegally access personal data.
He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:5, Insightful)
of course the government with Israel's influence wants to nail him for that.
Either way, I was with him until he decided to modify information. Release info is one thing. Modifying it is another.
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And why the link in TFS? Am I to interpret this as right-swing Slashdot bosses trying to slashdot the organization's servers, or left-wing BeauHD trying to draw sympathizers to the cause?
I'm no pro-Israel zealot, but I sure think the Anti-Zionists could help their cause if they more clearly repudiated antisemitism.
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of course the government with Israel's influence wants to nail him for that.
You know, full disclosure and all that conditional virile male cow excrement, I want to slight you immediately for the failure to capitalize... so and nonetheless; as the lottery recipient of the winning ticket, biologically, that paints you as a member of the planet's dominant species, you want to go down the blame the Jew's road?
You are under-performing with the cards you've been dealt. The boy hacker is just now receiving the attention he has assiduously sought.
Thanks for letting us know (Score:1)
I had some sympathy for him when I read the summary but since you let me know he's working on behalf of actual terrorists murdering truly innocent people, I'd rather his sentence have been more harsh and won't give him a second thought.
Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:2)
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Muslims theocracies are bad. Christian theocracies are bad. Jewish theocracies are bad. The fervor to make sure there's enough Jewish people in Israel to be sure the Jewish maintain power makes it a theocracy to me. There's definitely a lot of countries in the region who wish all Jews killed. I understand that there's no reasonable way to placate the Muslims in the region, so even presuming Israel had actually worked to form relations with other countries in the region and assimilate the Palestinians,
Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:2, Interesting)
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I don't know if Christianity is next, but that'd be my guess.
Your guess is that Christianity is going to die next?
Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:5, Informative)
The fervor to make sure there's enough Jewish people in Israel to be sure the Jewish maintain power makes it a theocracy to me.
It would if there were some religious test, or direct control of the government by the church (synagogue?). There isn't, though. "Jewish" is as much a cultural identifier as a religious one, and the government is essentially secular, with Muslim and Christian politicians serving in public office.
As such, calling it a theocracy is just silly. Israelis aren't worried about trying to make sure that their country is governed by rabbis; they're worried about mass migration resulting in negative cultural changes. Any massive change in the demographics of a nation is going to have a significant impact on how that nation looks and functions.
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Yes, let's just ignore the Law of Return [wikipedia.org]. The government might function as a secular one, but the deck is specifically stacked to keep Jews in power.
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Demographics change. It's what societies do if they want to survive. There are no pure cultures, and ethnically pure states always fail.
Attempting to preserve "borders, language, and culture" is a fools errand. After an animal has been to a taxidermist, they are seldom fertile. Look at the places in the US where there are efforts to preserve a dominant culture whose time has pa
Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:2)
There are no pure cultures, and ethnically pure states always fail.
That's a completely vacuous statement. All states eventually fail in one way or another.
It's even more irrelevant in the context of this discussion given that Israel is one of the least "ethnically pure" states in existence. You're just looking for an excuse to inject your weird political talking points into the discussion.
Attempting to preserve "borders, language, and culture" is a fools errand.
Awesome. I'll just let every country in the world know that they're wasting their time with that whole borders thing. Because pope fatso says so.
You end up with some white supremacist jackoff stripping off his clothes and murdering people in a Waffle House.with an AR-15 after complaining on Facebook about the Illuminati and the Jews.
If you actually paid attention to what
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Well, Iran and Egypt beg to differ. Still going strong after more than 5000 years.
Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:2)
That's pretty funny. I guess Germany is a good example that "ethnically pure" states don't fail either, then. In which case, which ethnically pure states were you referring to exactly?
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Germany is not ethnically pure, and it's brief flirtation ended up with it being split in two.
All of them. Ethnically pure states fail. None exist, and whenever an effort arises to create one, it's always an express elevator to Hell.
Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:2)
All of them
Awesome, thanks for being so specific.
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Japan was a monoculture until their efforts at ethnic purity almost led to their destruction in 1945.
Today, Japan is actually a pretty diverse place. You will find Africans, white people, Europeans and folks from all over Asia. They don't have the levels of immigration that most Western countries have, but they are by no means an ethnic state.
If you wanted to propose more ethnically pure states, Poland and Hungary might be more appropriate, but they're actually pretty diverse too.
As I've stated, eth
Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:4, Interesting)
"Jewish" is one of the least meaningful identifiers there is. It can mean an adherent of the religion, someone who is part of the culture but not necessarily religious, or it can be a race.
Which just goes to show how silly Jewish conspiracy theories are.
Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... (Score:2)
It's a miracle; we're actually in agreement for one. Must be a Jewish conspiracy.
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Meanwhile, back in the UK... (Score:1, Offtopic)
Say what you will about us, and there's a lot to be said about our government, but how many "underage rape gang" scandals have come out in the UK post Rotterham? These are scandals where the authorities knew and not only did nothing, but sometimes pursued the parents for going after the men harming their daughters.
If CWA wanted to do some good, they
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Not living or ever been to the US, I get the impression this is simply all swept under the rug with euphemism of "teen pregnancy".
In DC, 10% of all pregnancies are teenage.
A super politically incorrect fact is that fathers are almost twice as likely to be no longer in their teens. There's a marked bias for black fathers as well, while girls ethnicity is more or less uniformly distributed. What social dynamic is exactly at play there is anyone's guess.
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A super politically incorrect fact is that fathers are almost twice as likely to be no longer in their teens.
Fathers are, on average, older than mothers in every nation and society on earth. There is nothing "political" about it.
The average difference, at 2-3 years, is smallest in Europe and North America, and largest in polygamous societies of Africa.
The reasons for this are obvious. Men have a biological imperative to prefer fertile women with more years available for child-bearing. Women have a biological imperative to prefer men with social status and resources, which generally increase with age.
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A super politically incorrect fact is that fathers are almost twice as likely to be no longer in their teens.
Fathers are, on average, older than mothers in every nation and society on earth. There is nothing "political" about it.
The average difference, at 2-3 years, is smallest in Europe and North America, and largest in polygamous societies of Africa.
The reasons for this are obvious. Men have a biological imperative to prefer fertile women with more years available for child-bearing. Women have a biological imperative to prefer men with social status and resources, which generally increase with age.
Oh geeshe, Animojo and David Thornley are gonna be all over your backside now. All of what you wrote is merely a social construct. There is no difference between male and female. Yeah, I'm trolling.
Parliamentary gay paedophilia? (Score:1)
That was another big story from a few years back. They blocked investigation of the charges until the last documented parliament member with ties to the sex abuse had died, because MI5 had been using 'protection' for the ring of them to get favorable financing passed through parliament.
http://yournewswire.com/britis... [yournewswire.com]
https://www.express.co.uk/news... [express.co.uk]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/maga... [bbc.co.uk]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
http://listverse.com/2015/09/0... [listverse.com]
https://www.pri.org/stories/20... [pri.org]
https://www.nytimes.com/201 [nytimes.com]
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Of course occasionaly the blackmail ring is exposed accidentaly, in which case hasty cover up follows - the members did "nothi
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"A lobbyist won't back a politician unless there exists a perfect kompro"
A lot of people ignore this very simple aspect of US elections. Nobody donates millions of dollars to a politician running for office without expecting to see a healthy return on their investment. Congress created the 501c corporations and PAC's for the specific purpose of funneling unlimited amounts of money to their favorite politicians. Want to fix the US government? Limit campaign donations to $2500 per person per year and ban PAC
Re: What could the kid possibly have gotten... (Score:1)
Wipe the spittle off your screen, dude.
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Re:so he was a minor at the time... (Score:5, Informative)
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No, he was sentenced in the UK (at the Leicester crown court) and tried as a minor, sent to a juvenile prison.
And given a maximum of 2 years. I think he'll be out before then.
How long? (Score:3)
Accountability (Score:1)
UK prison? (Score:3, Insightful)
the right incentives (Score:2)
Were the CIA serious about IT security it would reward white hats who successfully broke in and penalize those inside the organization who failed to protect against that. Instead, they penalize white hats and there is little to no accountability within government agencies.
That is not a radical idea, it is the convention outside of government. We know that private companies offer bounties. Those of us who work for companies know that usually someone within the company who screws up is disadvantaged for th
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I would hire this little felon... (Score:4, Insightful)
...in a heartbeat.
Hacking the CIA Director doesn't necessarily mean your hack-fu is incredible, but it probably indicates that your social skills are pretty good.
That's what I want in an employee. I want somebody who can walk the walk well enough, of course. But my priority is that they make people who can help the company become more successful like and respect us. That's done through the people who speak for you. They don't need to be the brightest star in the sky. They need to be that bright person you would like to work with.
Re: I would hire this little felon... (Score:1)
Sure, that's fair (Score:1)
His actual crime (Score:2)
What he really was punished for is to show that the idiots who want every single information about everyone can't keep their own information (and of course ours) secure from a 15 year old kid.
THe only interesting thing here (Score:2)
The only interesting thing here Is that the director of the CIA is so out of touch he's still using AOL for his primary email address.
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You're mad (Score:5, Informative)
...how many years Trump, sons and lawyers are going to collectively get lol?
Um... none?
You do realize that the Republicans sent a recommendation for prosecution [house.gov] to the AG for Hillary Clinton,
James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and Loretta Lynch, right?
And unlike nebulous charge of "collusion", the recommendation letter lays out the specific actions these people took and the specific federal laws that were broken.
You probably didn't hear about that - the MSM was pretty quiet about it.
And also note that Rep. Dana Rohrabacher claims to have physical proof [breitbart.com] that the Russians did not hack the DNC.
You knew about that, right?
Also, you do know that the original FISA court warrant was invalid on its face, so any evidence Mueller uncovers would be thrown out, right?
Also, there's been no leaks of evidence from the Muller investigation, even though everything *else* seems to have been leaked. Even when those leaks are a violation of federal law, they still happen, and yet none of them have been about evidence.
Also note that impeaching the president is an extremely high bar to clear. President Clinton was caught on camera in a baldfaced lie to congress and the people of the US ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman"), and was acquitted.
Do you think saying “I hope you can let this go” rises to that level?
You're mad.
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You're going to have to do better than that, troll. [wikipedia.org]
That would be correctly used, if your source didn't make your argument subject to another logical fallacy. [wikipedia.org]
How about you agree to never quote Breitbart or Infowars, and the rest of us will never quote Daily Kos or Alternet? Deal?
Re: You're mad (Score:2, Troll)
Awwwwwww, look - a credulous fool who actually believes the semi-official propaganda organs. How quaint!
Re: You're mad (Score:1)
Left = right = center = authoritarian financialist.
Get over this stupidity, man.
Re:You're mad (Score:5, Informative)
And the Justice Department under Jeff Sessions put it right in the circular file where it belongs. There will be no charges.
You mean the Dana Rohrabacher who the Kremlin has considered an intelligence source for the past two decades and so important that they gave him a code name? THAT Dana Rohrabacher?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/1... [nytimes.com]
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/11... [npr.org]
https://www.vanityfair.com/new... [vanityfair.com]
http://thehill.com/homenews/ca... [thehill.com]
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And the Justice Department under Jeff Sessions put it right in the circular file where it belongs. There will be no charges.
In 21st Century RerpubliKremlin America, The Justice system and the FBI are criminals, and Breitbart is the unimpeachable source of God's own truth.
Now let us bow and pray to saint Alex Jones, that he may guide us to the truth. the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Trump.
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Alex Jones is so 2015. He wasn't nutty enough for the True Believers, so they'ave graduated to something called #QAnon, which posits that Barack Obama has been arrested and is in Guantanamo awaiting execution and the guy who went to Barbara Bush's funeral was really a body double. Supposedly, there is someone very close to President Trump called "Q" (and it might be Trump himself!) who posts updates to the Trump Underground via 8chan in a sort of Burroughs-like c
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Alex Jones is so 2015. He wasn't nutty enough for the True Believers, so they'ave graduated to something called #QAnon, which posits that Barack Obama has been arrested and is in Guantanamo awaiting execution and the guy who went to Barbara Bush's funeral was really a body double.
He's also being sued by a number of people. Some Sandy Hook Parents: http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/1... [cnn.com] Some folks from Charlotteville. https://www.huffingtonpost.com... [huffingtonpost.com] Chobani Yogurt and Pepe the frog's creator as well.
While he claims Freedom of speech, there are some problems with purposely spreading lies that you know to be lies.
I think in the first two cases, they have no intention of settling, so there might be a bankrupt the asshole sthick happening.
I've tried listening to Infowars, but it is
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His brain is made of turds. Glad to fix that detail for you.
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Yeeeee haw!! I'm a Tolerant Fuckin' Liberal!
U mad Bro?
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who the Kremlin has considered an intelligence source for the past two decades
Told you this, did they... or did you call up AOL pretending to be Pootie-Poot?? GTFO, Pope; you're merely repeating what you've been told as if it were gospel... when certain rather loud parties have a vested interest in pushing this meme for the sake of [mostly] well-intentioned, "compassionate" libs - plus a few rabid, pro-Establishments, big-gov't nutballs such as yourself.
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Um... none?
You do realize that the Republicans sent a recommendation for prosecution to the AG for Hillary Clinton,
James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and Loretta Lynch, right?
Who cares? Why should anyone take this type of political referral seriously?
What claim specifically should I be expected to give two shits about? Please prosecute our political adversaries. Beeennngggghaaaaazzziiiii!!! blah blah blah. The shit still smells regardless of who is doing the throwing.
And unlike nebulous charge of "collusion", the recommendation letter lays out the specific actions these people took and the specific federal laws that were broken.
DJT publically asked Russia to commit a crime on his behalf. Michael Cohen went to Prague to arrange payment to those involved in Russian efforts and is STILL denying he was ever there.
Personally I never gave
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...how many years Trump, sons and lawyers are going to collectively get lol?
Um... none?
You do realize that the Republicans sent a recommendation for prosecution [house.gov] to the AG for Hillary Clinton,
James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and Loretta Lynch, right?
Trump has been trying to have his political enemies jailed for awhile. That we elected him still means that this country has turned to shit and stupid.
Of that list, Hillary has been thoroughly investigated and there wasn't enough there to go further. Comey hasn't committed any crimes, unless thinking Trump is a clear and present danger to our country and doing what is legally possible is a crime. He did it after he was fired, and thus no longer had to follow FBI policy, though he does still have to prote
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...how many years Trump, sons and lawyers are going to collectively get lol?
Um... none?
You do realize that the Republicans sent a recommendation for prosecution [house.gov] to the AG for Hillary Clinton,
James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and Loretta Lynch, right?
Yes, the Republican party has been working hard to discredit the investigation into the Trump presidential campaign but the truth shall prevail. Also, I have some bad news about the upcoming elections: Democrats are poised to take control of both the House and the Senate. Taking control of the House was previously seen as "impossible" now it's likely and taking the Senate is now within reach. Undoing gerrymandering is doing great things for democracy.
And unlike nebulous charge of "collusion", the recommendation letter lays out the specific actions these people took and the specific federal laws that were broken.
Collusion isn't a legal term but Conspiracy and Obstru
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You are ruining New Hampshire. The people who have lived there for generations want you to go away.
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