The hacker breached the phone as well
The director of the U.S. National Intelligence Service suffered a breach of several of his personal online accounts, as his office confirms. A spokesperson said the issue had “been reported to the relevant authorities”, but refused to say more.
As Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper serves as the US president's top adviser on security matters, including cyber threats .This comes after a similar attack on the CIA director in October.
The news site Motherboard reported on Tuesday that it had come into contact with a young hacker who took responsibility. Motherboard reported that the teenager said he was part of the same group – Crackas With Attitude (CWA) – behind the previous breach.
Requested a trace
The youth said that they had breached Mr. Clapper's personal e-mail, his Verizon phone settings and his internet account, and a Yahoo email account that belong to Mr. Clapper's wife. The BBC understands that Mr. Clapper's office has seen only evidence that the hacker indeed had access to Sue Clapper's email and the family's phone number.
It appears the teenager changed the phone number's settings so that calls were rerouted to a representative of the Free Palestine Movement, which the CWA says it supports. Motherboard said the hacker had also gone through the call Mr. Clapper had recently made and received.
Security blogger Graham Cluley notes that it was very odd that no email screenshots of Mr. Clapper were leaked if his account had indeed been breached, but he added that the other details were still alarming.
“If the details of the breach are true, then it is obviously concerning that the hackers were not only able to redirect the calls made to the Clapper house, but also to see the phone numbers of the people who called it and to have access to personal email accounts,” wrote .
“For that reason, it is perhaps a relief that those behind the breach were more interested in poking fun at the Director of National Intelligence than having anything more sinister in mind.”
