White House Officials Tricked By Email Prankster (cnn.com)

Jake Tapper, reporting for CNN: A self-described "email prankster" in the UK fooled a number of White House officials into thinking he was other officials, including an episode where he convinced the White House official tasked with cyber security that he was Jared Kushner and received that official's private email address unsolicited. "Tom, we are arranging a bit of a soiree towards the end of August," the fake Jared Kushner on an Outlook account wrote to the official White House email account of Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert. "It would be great if you could make it, I promise food of at least comparible (sic) quality to that which we ate in Iraq. Should be a great evening." Bossert wrote back: "Thanks, Jared. With a promise like that, I can't refuse. Also, if you ever need it, my personal email is" (redacted). Bossert did not respond to CNN's request for comment; the email prankster said he was surprised Bossert responded given his expertise. The emails were shared with CNN by the email prankster. White House officials acknowledged the incidents and said they were taking the matter seriously. "We take all cyber related issues very seriously and are looking into these incidents further," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN.

Comments

So what?

[Train0987]

Let me get this straight. John Podesta gets fooled by a phishing attempt and suddenly the Russian government colluded with Trump to steal the election that Clinton was promised, but when someone in the Trump admin gets fooled by an email it's just a harmless prankster.

Re:So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure what your point is. I'd say that, yes, a foreign power breaking into a campaign's email files is something that is and should be illegal.

This should be illegal, too, but, I agree with the story, it does seem more like a prank, and not a foreign power attempting to change U.S. election results. There is a difference.

Re:So what?

[Maritz]

The reason you can't see the difference is either (a) you're extremely biased or (b) you're a bit slow. Both is perfectly possible also (likely, in fact).

Re:So what?

[Maritz]

Apparently, they only find cyber issues against them to be serious since the Russian meddling in our election (I'm not privy to investigation results so I can't comment on collusion) appears A-OK.

He's a wannabee tyrant, without the competence to become one. It must be frustrating for him.

Re:So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm impressed. It is very rare for such a short post to contain so many failures in basic reasoning:

1. This was some idiot prankster, not the UK government. Thus, not a foreign power.

2. Publicizing achievements is not inherently political. Some people just really attention. Most people, in fact.

3. Who cares if the administration is embarassed?

4. Phishing is not illegal under federal law, which is applicable to DC.

5. Ignoring a cyber security breach by a high-ranking member of DHS is stupid. It is his job to do better -- literally.

Re:So what?

[Tablizer]

humans are humans and somethings skip steps

Oh the irony burns. Correction: ...sometimes skip steps...

Re:So what?

[PopeRatzo]

You honestly don't think this was an attempt to embarrass the Trump administration?

It's funny that you think the Trump administration is capable of embarrassment. After all, embarrassment requires a certain level of self-awareness, and there has been zero of that on evidence.

Re:He's gonna end up in some camp.

[Anonymous Coward]

I like rules of thumb. You just touched on one of my favorites:

"Never challenge a small-minded man in a position of power."

Not surprised though t it could have been worse...

[bogaboga]

"Thanks, Jared. With a promise like that, I can't refuse. Also, if you ever need it, my personal email is" (redacted).

A "food" promise will work most of the time.

Now, just suppose it were something to do with [propositioning] the fairer sex! Now, that would have been a scandal big time.

My take: Those folks are lucky, for now.

If you live in glass houses...

[Tablizer]

A good many Republicans trashed the DNC for their "lax security". Crow soup anyone?

Re: He's gonna end up in some camp.

[Maritz]

Lauri Love might care to differ. The UK hands people over the US regularly, and ignores humanitarian concerns when doing so. There was another guy a few years before that, think his condition was more severe than this one.

Re:He's gonna end up in some camp.

[Maritz]

That would be the vast majority on men in positions of power.

Re:Prank vs. Cyberattack

[Maritz]

One bloke in the UK = the UK did it? This place gets dumber all the time. Holy shit you live in a fucking cartoon world, dumbass.

[Suspected Spam]

[Anonymous Coward]

It was tagged [Suspected Spam], how could it NOT have been a legit email?

How much stupider can these people get?

Re:It will happen in any administration

[Maritz]

"En vogue". lol. The guy redacted the email address. What other information came out of this, apart from revealing the incompetence of a Homeland Security adviser?

Shock

[American AC in Paris]

You elect amateur hour, you're gonna get amateur hour.

Re:Shock

[hey!]

Yes, I was surprised that the prankster thought Bossert had "expertise". He's a lawyer.

Now a lot of lawyers are very smart, and the best are information sponges who do manage to acquire impressive depth of knowledge in fields outside the law. But Bossert's only security experience was working as Deputy Homeland Security Advisor under Bush, a position he was utterly unqualified for; as for experience he picked up in that position, this was a period when the department was new and notorious for security theater and expensive boondoggles. Oh, yes he did serve as Director of Infrastructure Protection under Bush as well, during a period where nothing significant was accomplished.

I wouldn't be the least surprised if he got suckered by a phishing campaign.

The stupidity is mind-baffling

[nospam007]

What's with US politicians and email?
Don't they know it's like postcards that can be written by any idiot?
I guess not.

Re:Use PGP/GPG

[ichimunki]

That's what private key servers are for, and nothing is stopping the feds from setting one up for their own people to use.

Re:Waiting for this "prankster" to get arrested

[R3d M3rcury]

Pretty sure that spear phishing is a crime [...]

It probably comes under the generic catch-all, "Fraud." I'm not sure there's anything specific about spear-phishing...

Let's be perfectly clear - it's a huge problem.

[gosand]

"So we had to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is a huge problem. I have a son—he’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers. It’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe, it's hardly doable. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing. But that’s true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better, Lester. And certainly cyber is one of them."