At least some of Brennan’s private emails seemed to contain extremely sensitive information including his security clearance application and the social security numbers of several CIA officers.
The question is: what the hell was the the Director of the CIA doing using AOL, probably the most insecure email platform there is? DUH!
You can expect the 13-year-old prankster to get the hammer dropped on him though. As Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Nate Cardozo tweeted, the "CIA Director kept [secret and private] docs on AOL, that's until hacked by a 13 year old."
Hacker releases new purported personal data for top CIA, DHS officials https://t.co/w7bSJatHlN by @cfarivar
— Ars Technica (@arstechnica) October 19, 2015
To add to the embarrassment, the nation’s top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Jeh Johnson had a private COMCAST account possibly hacked by these same teenagers. Its worrying that these technologically clueless people are in charge of the nation’s cybersecurity infrastructure. The DHS has been singled out many times for its especially poor cybersecurity practices, despite the fact that they’re supposed to be the federal agency in charge of cybersecurity.
Like almost all hacks, Brennan’s started with something incredibly simple: social engineering. Motherboard’s Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reported that – if we are to believe the hackers – they tricked Verizon and AOL into giving up Brennan’s password by calling their customer service department.
Do you ever get the feeling we are being ruled by Moe Howard, the Keystone Cops, and the Marx Brothers on a drunken binge?