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UK Teen Who Hacked CIA Director Sentenced To 2 Years In Prison (gizmodo.com)

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.

7 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Well ain't that rich... by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

  2. He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... by greenwow · · Score: 4, 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.

  3. And Brennan wasn't at fault by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, 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.

  4. You're mad by Okian+Warrior · · 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 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 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.

    1. Re:You're mad by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

      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 the Justice Department under Jeff Sessions put it right in the circular file where it belongs. There will be no charges.

      And also note that Rep. Dana Rohrabacher claims to have physical proof [breitbart.com] that the Russians did not hack the DNC.

      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...

      https://www.npr.org/2018/03/11...

      https://www.vanityfair.com/new...

      http://thehill.com/homenews/ca...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  5. Re:so he was a minor at the time... by Sique · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, he was sentenced in the UK (at the Leicester crown court) and tried as a minor, sent to a juvenile prison.

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  6. Re: He helped the Free Palestine Movement so.... by c6gunner · · Score: 4, 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.