Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Targeted by Alleged Hack, Official Says
Accounts linked to James Clapper were targeted, official says.
— -- Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was the latest high-profile national security official to be targeted by hackers, a U.S. official said today.
Motherboard, which first reported the alleged hack, said that the hacker known as “Cracka,” who is a part of the a group of hackers known as “Crackas With Attitude” or CWA, contacted reporter Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai on Monday claiming to have broken into various accounts connected to Clapper.
The hacker claimed to have broken into Clapper’s home telephone and Internet, his personal email, and his wife’s Yahoo email, as well as changing the settings of Clapper’s Verizon FiOS account, so that calls to his house would be forwarded to the Free Palestine Movement, according to Motherboard.
“We are aware of the incident and have reported it to the appropriate authorities,” DNI spokesperson Brian Hale told ABC News in a statement today.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment further on the incident.
In October, a personal AOL email account associated with CIA Director John Brennan, as well as an account linked to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson were hacked, sources told ABC News.
Sources said it does not appear Brennan used the account for government business after he became CIA director.
The breach against Johnson's account exposed very little information and it was not believed to contain sensitive information, according to sources familiar with the breach at the time.
DHS said there was no update on the investigation into the Johnson hack at this time.
The FBI and Secret Service investigated the previous incidents, but did not provide further comment on the past investigations. The Secret Service is not investigating the incident involving Clapper's compromised accounts, according to a spokesperson for the agency.
