Defense Department file photo
The FBI and Secret Service are Investigating Reports That The CIA Director's Email Was Hacked
John Brennan, reports suggest, was using an AOL account.
The FBI and the Secret Service are investigating a report that a hacker broke into the personal email accounts of CIA director John Brennan and secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, CNN reports.
The alleged hacker—a teenager interviewed by The New York Post over the weekend—tweeted on Monday, Oct. 19 an image of a spreadsheet containing what appears to be personal information about Brennan, Johnson, and other government officials, including their Social Security numbers.
Social Security numbers issued before 2011 can be decoded to reveal the date and location of issuance. The number attributed by the hacker to Brennan (which Quartz is not publishing) fits the pattern of an identification code issued in New Jersey in 1966. Brennan was born in 1955 in New Jersey, but because social security numbers are not automatically issued at birth, that does not disqualify the purported hack.
The hacker told the Post that he accessed Brennan’s AOL account and stole documents that were attached to some 40 emails. He also said he broke into Johnson’s Comcast account, and even listened to some of his voicemails.
The user has now been suspended by Twitter.
The FBI would not comment in response to questions from Quartz. The Secret Service was not immediately available to comment.