organization:united states intelligence

15-Year-Old Schoolboy Posed as CIA Chief to Hack Highly Sensitive Information

▻https://thehackernews.com/2018/01/crackas-with-attitude-hacker.html

A notorious pro-Palestinian hacking group behind a series of embarrassing hacks against United States intelligence officials and leaked the personal details of 20,000 FBI agents, 9,000 Department of Homeland Security officers, and some number of DoJ staffers in 2015.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_5B3OD6I6Qk/WmMb2nGzCHI/AAAAAAAAvh8/9nzuiqIJ_R05csvN1OZMbtntL1jN8mS4QCLcBGAs/s1600/crackas-with-attitude-hacker.png

Believe or not, the leader of this hacking group was just 15-years-old when he used “social engineering” to impersonate CIA director and unauthorisedly access highly sensitive information from his Leicestershire home, revealed during a court hearing on Tuesday.

Kane Gamble, now 18-year-old, the British teenager hacker targeted then CIA director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, FBI deputy director Mark Giuliano, as well as other senior FBI figures.

Between June 2015 and February 2016, Gamble posed as Brennan and tricked call centre and helpline staff into giving away broadband and cable passwords, using which the team also gained access to plans for intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iran.

Gamble said he targeted the US government because he was “getting more and more annoyed about how corrupt and cold-blooded the US Government” was and “decided to do something about it.”

U.S. intelligence objects to visa waiver for Israelis

▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.586303

Allowing entry to Israelis without visa would make it easier for Israeli spies, the House Judiciary Committee was warned, according to a report in Roll Call.

Haaretz, By Barak Ravid | Apr. 19, 2014 |

Officials in the United States intelligence community are opposing the admission of Israel to the Visa Waver program – aimed at easing the entry of foreigners to the country – for fear that it would facilitate espionage, according to Roll Call, an online news source that covers the U.S. Congress. The Visa Waver program, which already includes 38 countries, would allow Israelis to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days without a visa.

Congress members and staffers in the House Judiciary Committee expressed concerns that admitting Israel to the program would make it easier for Israeli spies to enter the U.S., according to the report in Roll Call, which was based on interviews with lawmakers and staffers who took part in a classified committee briefing several weeks ago. The context of the briefing was the attempt by several congressmen and senators to promote legislation that would admit Israel into the program.

Nicky Hager » #Wikileaks: Leaked US cables spill the beans on NZ ties
►http://www.nickyhager.info/wikileaks-leaked-us-cables-spill-the-beans-on-nz-ties

NEW ZEALAND’S collaboration with United States intelligence agencies was “fully restored” in August 2009 but both governments decided to keep the decision secret.

(...) the news “should not be acknowledged in public”.

The US imposed restrictions on intelligence supply in the 1980s as retaliation for New Zealand’s #nuclear-free policy, and American ambassador Bill McCormick was still saying in late 2005 that there was “little room to move” while the anti-nuclear legislation remained in place.

But the cable reveals the US quietly resumed the intelligence flow despite the nuclear-free policy. It said despite the 1985 #ANZUS break, New Zealand remained a member of the Five Eyes intelligence community, but with access to certain types of material curtailed.

“Our intelligence relationship was fully restored in August 29, 2009,” the SECRET/NOFORN cable, meaning for American eyes only – No Foreign Nationals, says.

#New_Zealand #USA #Echelon