Boy, 15, posed as head of CIA to get secret intelligence files
A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD boy gained access to computers for intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iran by pretending to be the head of the CIA, a court has heard.
From the bedroom of the council house he shared with his mother, Kane Gamble used “social engineering” to access the personal and work accounts of some of America’s most powerful spy chiefs.
The teenager persuaded call handlers at an internet giant that he was John Brennan, the then director of the CIA, to gain access to his computers and convinced an FBI helpdesk that he was Mark Giuliano, then the agency’s deputy director, to regain access to an intelligence database.
His other targets included Jeh Johnson, the US secretary of homeland security.
Social engineering involves manipulating people – usually call centre or help desk staff – into permitting acts or divulging confidential information.
Gamble, from Coalville, Leics, taunted his victims online, released personal information and bombarded them with calls and messages.
He also downloaded pornography to their computers and took control of their ipads and television screens.
John Lloyd-jones QC, prosecuting, said that Gamble founded a group called Crackas With Attitude in 2015, telling a journalist: “It all started by me getting more and more annoyed about how corrupt and cold-blooded the US government are.”
Mr Lloyd-jones said it was a common misconception to think the group were hackers when in fact they used social engineering to gain access to emails, phones, computers and law enforcement portals.
Gamble, who has pleaded guilty to 10 offences under the computer misuse act, first targeted Mr Brennan.
Initially, he was denied access to his
‘It all started by me getting annoyed about how corrupt and cold-blooded the US Government are’
computers as he could not name Mr Brennan’s first pet but during later calls, the handler changed the account PIN and security questions.
Gamble, who is now 18, went on to post sensitive information on Twitter and Wikileaks and mocked officials about his access, sometimes using the tag #freepalestine and claiming it was because the US Government was “killing innocent people”.
Gamble’s last act was in Feb 2016 when he gained access to the US Department of Justice’s network and downloaded details of 20,000 FBI employees and case files, including those on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The FBI and the US Secret Service were so concerned about the material he had seen, they called police in the UK and Gamble was arrested.
Medical experts for the defence argued Gamble was on the autism spectrum and at the time of his offending, had the mental age of a 12 or 13-yearold. He has no friends to speak off and is closest to his mother Ann, a cleaner who reportedly won a £1.6million lottery jackpot in 1997 but “lost all the money on doomed property deals”.
William Harbage QC said that after his arrest, Gamble told doctors “it was kind of easy”.
Mr Justice Haddon-cave will sentence him on a date to be fixed.