Teenagers are claiming to have hacked a senior adviser to President Obama, making him at least the sixth high level official the group has successfully targeted since October.
One of the group’s members, “Fearz,” hacked a Comcast Xfinity account held by John Holdren, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, by targeting his wife, the group told Motherboard in an online chat.
“[Fearz] sent [Holdren’s wife] Cheryl an email claiming to be John LOL,” the group told Motherboard, saying “something like, ‘Hey honey, do you have the password for our joint Xfinity account? I lost it.'”
When Holdren’s wife turned over the credentials, the group used the account to reroute telephone calls to Holdren’s landline to a number belonging to the founder of the Free Palestine Movement, Paul Larudee.
“We are aware of this issue and have reported it to law enforcement,” a spokesperson for the White House Office of Science and Technology told Motherboard, confirming Holdren was targeted.
The same hacking group, “Crackas With Attitude,” has successfully targeted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson; Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan; Federal Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Mark Giuliano; and former intelligence executive Vonna Weir Heaton, who worked on cybersecurity for the DNI and Defense Department.
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In addition to its confirmed hits, the group also claims that it hacked Amy Hess, the FBI’s executive assistant director for science and technology; White House Communications Director Jen Psaki; White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken; and White House Deputy National Security Adviser Avril Haines.
The hackers began in October by hacking Brennan’s Verizon AOL email account and Johnson’s Comcast account. They did that by posing as Brennan in a call to Verizon, and as Johnson in a call to Comcast, and convincing customer service representatives to hand over their information.
The teen perpetrators, who have claimed even their parents have no knowledge of their devious pastime, have said they are acting on behalf of Palestine, and called for the murder of Israeli officials.
“[Blank] zionist [blanks] and bomb Israel leaders,” they said.
