LONDON: A British teenager managed to access the communications accounts oftop US intelligence and security officials including the then CIA chiefJohn Brennan, a London court heard Friday.
Kane Gamble, now 18, was aged 15 and 16 when, from his bedroom inCoalville, central England, he managed to impersonate his targets to gainhighly sensitive information.
“Kane Gamble gained access to the communications accounts of some veryhigh-ranking US intelligence officials and government employees,”prosecutor John Lloyd-Jones told England’s Old Bailey central criminalcourt.
“He also gained access to US law enforcement and intelligence agencynetworks.”
Gamble has admitted 10 offences against the computer misuse act, betweenJune 2015 and February 2016, and is awaiting sentencing.
The court heard how the teenager founded the group Crackas With Attitude(CWA), who used “social engineering” – manipulating call centres and helpdesks into divulging confidential information – which they then exploited.
Gamble impersonated Brennan in calls to the telecommunications companiesVerizon and AOL, although in one attempt, he stumbled on a question aboutBrennan’s first pet.
Several sensitive documents were reportedly obtained from Brennan’s privateemail inbox and Gamble managed to get information about military andintelligence operations in Iran and Afghanistan.
“It also seems he was able to successfully access Mr Brennan’s iCloudaccount,” the prosecutor said.
Gamble called AOL and initiated a password reset, and took control ofBrennan’s wife’s iPad.
Gamble also targeted the then US secretary of homeland security Jeh Johnsonand made calls to his phone number.
He left Johnson’s wife a voicemail saying “Am I scaring you?” and managedto get a message to appear on the family television saying: “I own you”.
Other targets included the then US president Barack Obama’s deputy nationalsecurity adviser Avril Haines, his senior science and technology adviserJohn Holdren, and FBI special agent Amy Hess.
Gamble gained extensive unauthorised access to the US Department of Justicenetwork and was able to access court case files, including on the Deepwateroil spill.
The British teenager gave some of the material he managed to access toWikiLeaks and boasted that he had a list of all Homeland Security employees.
The court heard from consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Steffan Davies,whose assessment was that Gamble did not have a full understanding of theimpact of what he was doing, due to autism.
“I’m very clear that he has an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD),” he said.
“He spent most of his life in his bedroom on the internet and that is wherehe is getting his cues from.
“He has a very black and white understanding of what was happening, seeingit more as a video game with goodies and baddies.
“He was trying to right what he saw as an injustice.”
However, another expert, Dr Philip Joseph, said he doubted Gamble wasautistic.
“He’s at the mild end (of the spectrum), if he’s on it at all,” he said.
“If he had that condition, it doesn’t explain why he committed theseoffences.”
Gamble was arrested at his home on February 9 last year at the request ofthe FBI.
He claimed he was motivated to act out of support for the Palestinians, anddue to the United States “killing innocent civilians”, the prosecutor said.
Wearing a black jacket, he spoke only to confirm his name, mumbling “yes”,and sat in the court next to his mother.
He will be sentenced at a date yet to be fixed. AFP