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High school student reportedly hacks CIA director’s personal email

A high school student has claimed to have hacked the private email account of CIA Director John Brennan  where the student found a number of sensitive, government-related files, according to a report in the New York Post.

The teenager, who refers to himself and a friend as Crackas With Attitude (CWA), said he used social engineering on Verizon workers to gain access to Brennan's AOL account, where he read more than three dozen emails with attachments. Among the information he allegedly found were Brennan's security clearance application and Social Security numbers and other personal information on more than 12 U.S. intelligence officers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reportedly looking into the incident.

Adam Levin, chairman and founder of IDT911 and author of “Swiped” expressed dismay, assuming that the reports of the teen's actions are true, that government has yet to get with the program.

“Which part of the concept - the Cyber War has replaced the Cold War - isn't clear to very high ranking intelligence officials?” Levin said in comments emailed to SCMagazine.com. “In light of the relentless and sophisticated assaults on public and private sector American databases (and the Hilary email-gate issue that won't die - Bernie Sanders to the contrary notwithstanding), it should cause countless sleepless nights for our leaders in Washington as well as the rest of us.”

Contending that “breaches have become the third certainty of life,” Levin noted that government agencies and officials in the U.S. “are in the cross-hairs of state-sponsored, cause and ‘because I can' hackers.”

He chastened those who use email to communicate and store sensitive information “much less information that might be considered ‘classified.'"

That the teen could “gather significant rose buds of PII from major American corporations confirms yet again that we have not adopted the culture of security so desperately required in today's globalized and interconnected world,” Levin said.

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