CIA director and Homeland Security Secretary e-mail accounts hacked by a teenager. AP.

CIA Director John Brennan. Washington Post/AP.

The CIA Director, John Brennan and the Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, have both had their personal e-mail accounts hacked. AP. The anonymous hacker has posted information, including a list of e-mail contacts, from John Brennan's AOL e-mail account. The hacker also released personal data from Jeh Johnson's Comcast account. One of the documents posted on the hacker's twitter account included a list of CIA and other intelligence officers along with their Social Security numbers, which were redacted. It is unclear why Brennan had this information in his e-mail account. It is possible that it was a list of White House invitees, who are required to give their Social Security numbers. The hacker claims to have Brennan's security application, also known as a SF86, which has sensitive information about his employment, finances and foreign contacts. The hacker claims that he committed the hack in order to gain support for Palestinians. 

My Comment:

The twitter account for the hacker can be found here... for the time being. I'm guessing it won't be up for long. The hammer of the gods is going to come down on this kid pretty soon, and I wouldn't be too surprised if his account gets banned. From what I understand this was just some stupid stoner teenager and his life is going to be essentially over soon. 

I think that is probably fair as well. Unlike Edward Snowden, this guy leaked sensitive information for no decent reason. Even if you think that Palestine is a worthy cause, how on earth does this help anything? The US government is going to change it's policy based on the actions of one stoner teenager? No chance. This kid just threw his life away for no reason. Whatever happens to him, it's probably justified. 

I do have to say that he did expose something that I think is just mind boggling. Why on earth do John Brennan and Jeh Johnson have a personal e-mail account? On AOL and Comcast? AOL still exists? Seriously, why do all these government officials even have personal e-mail accounts. Much like Hillary Clinton, I just can't believe that they are allowed to have one, let alone have one that is so easily hacked. AOL and Comcast aren't exactly known for having great security.

The security risks here are just massive. And if a teenage stoner can hack into these e-mail, you can bet that the enemies of America can do so just as easily. The Chinese and the Russians probably compromised these accounts years ago. And all those Social Security numbers are in the hands of foreign intelligence agencies. People lives could be at risk because these people couldn't use secure e-mail accounts. 

If I was in charge I would make it so that anyone in an intelligence or top government officials would be unable to use any account that wasn't government sponsored. Any accounts they had before they were elected, assigned or hired would have to be deleted on condition of employment. I don't know if that is illegal or not, but it makes sense. 

As much as people have been beating up on Hillary Clinton for her e-mail debacle, this new hack just goes to show that the rot extends far beyond just her. If the CIA director and Homeland Security Secretary are doing the same thing. That does not excuse Clinton at all. Indeed, I think that she should be barred from the presidency over the e-mail scandal and spend some time in jail. But it looks like a lot of other people should be going to jail as well. Who knows how many other personal e-mail accounts are out there? Does the President have one? And if so, how can we possibly believe that they are secure now? 

Nobody in our government takes internet security seriously. All the hacks, leaks and other revelations, would not happen in a functional government. I'm glad that some of these things happened, but you would have thought that after the Snowden leaks the government would have changed focus from offensive cyber warfare to defensive. The NSA shouldn't be wasting so much time spying on everyone that may have a link to a guy that has a link to a terrorist organization, in violation of the 4th amendment mind you, and should instead make sure that some asshole teenager can't hack into the accounts of high ranking government officials. 

But that won't happen, and I seriously doubt that anyone will be held accountable for this hack, other then the hacker himself. Yes, he deserves to go down and go down hard, but the fact that he was able to do this is more of a condemnation to the people he hacked then it is on him. If we were in a sane world, Brennan and Johnson would lose their jobs over this and there would be serious changes in our government. It won't happen, just like Hillary Clinton won't end up in jail for her incompetence...