British teenager hacked US security chiefs
18-year-old targeted high-profile CIA and intelligence figures to access sensitive documents
A BRITISH teenager hacked into a US security chief ’s home television and made the words “I own you” appear on screen, a court has heard.
Kane Gamble, 18, rocked the US intelligence community when he hacked senior officials’ accounts in a campaign of “cyber terrorism”. He admitted tar- geting high-profile figures such as the then-cia director John Brennan and his wife, and FBI deputy director Mark Giuliano, from his family home on a housing estate in Coalville, Leics.
Between June 2015 and February 2016, he accessed email and phone accounts to get his hands on “extremely sensitive” documents on military and intelligence operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Old Bailey was told.
He impersonated his victims and conned call centres at communications giants Comcast and Verizon into divulging confidential information.
After targeting Mr Brennan and his wife Kathy, Gamble posted anonymously on Twitter saying: “@CIA set your game up homies. We own everything. #freepalestine #CWA.”
Other victims working under President Barack Obama included James Clapper, director of national intelligence; Avril Haines, deputy national security adviser; John Holdren, senior science and technology adviser; Jeh Johnson, secretary of homeland security and Amy Hess, an FBI special agent.
Mr Giuliano’s passwords were reset and he and his family were bombarded with phone calls, resulting in them needing police protection.
Gamble leaked some of the information he gathered using various websites including Wikileaks.
Mr Justice Haddon-cave sentenced Gamble to two years in youth detention. He said Gamble had “revelled” in the attacks, adding: “This was an extremely nasty campaign of politically motivated cyber terrorism. The victims would have felt seriously violated.”
Prosecutor John Lloyd-jones QC said aggravating features included the “invasion” of victims’ professional and private lives and those of their families.
He said: “So many of the American witnesses attest to a drop in confidence in the use of portals, many of the agencies withdrawing their contributions, reducing the effectiveness in the wider law enforcement community in America.”
Arguing for a suspended sentence, William Harbage QC said Gamble had a naive response to what he read about in online chat rooms.
“In a naive, immature and childish way, he thought he could do something about it, he could make a nuisance of himself by targeting people in America and that would somehow get them to change US policy as a result of what he was doing from his bedroom.”
Gamble had pleaded guilty to eight charges of performing a function with intent to secure unauthorised access to computers and two charges of unauthorised modification of computer material.
The judge also ordered the seizure of Gamble’s computers.