group of teenage hackers going by the name of “Crackas With Attitude”
(CWA) are on a rampage, breaking into federal systems to embarrass the
U.S. government.
After gaining access to the personal AOL email account of CIA Director John Brennan last month, the teenagers reportedly broke into the Comcast email account of FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliana’s
wife, dumped personal details of thousands of government employees and
then claimed to have gained access to the national Joint Automated
Booking System, JABS, a database of arrest records, the FBI’s Internet
Crime Complaint Center and the FBI’s Virtual Command Center.
“Cracka,” one of the hackers who claims to be a stoner, told
Motherboard the CWA targeted FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliana because
the FBI is investigating the hacker group and plans to “make an example”
out of them. CWA “hacked” into the email account of Giuliana’s wife,
found Giuliana’s phone number and then called him. Giuliana allegedly
told Cracka, “I don’t know you but you better watch your back.” The
hacker tweeted that Comcast and AOL had nothing to do with breaching the feds’ accounts.
The same people who obtained the CIA e-mails just breached the FBI servers,
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) November 8, 2015
Next, CWA dumped
personal details of over 2,400 government employees; the list allegedly
contained full names, job titles, organizations, agencies, email
addresses and phone numbers. Softpedia added that the hackers claim to
have around 34,000 “emails, names, position and phone numbers of
gov[ernment] associates, including military,” but it is unknown if the
names were obtained via a hack, purchased off the Dark Web, or will be
used to dox people.
Next Gov, which reported
the dumped list had personal details of 3,500 government employees, was
told by the FBI that the agency will neither confirm nor deny “specific
claims of hacktivism;” the FBI intends to hunt down the hackers and
hold them “accountable” for engaging in “illegal activities in
cyberspace.” DHS declined to comment and the Pentagon said to go ask the
FBI.
Now the alleged teenage hackers claim to have gained access
to the national Joint Automated Booking System, JABS, a database of
arrest records, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and the FBI’s
Virtual Command Center.
CWA told
Wired they exploited a flaw “that allowed them to gain access to the
private portal, which is supposed to be available only to the FBI and
other law enforcement agencies around the country. That portal in turn,
they say, gave them access to more than a dozen law enforcement tools
that are used for information sharing.”
https://t.co/OGuq3oJ3Gz Who’s ready for part 2?
#FreePalestine
#CWA— cracka (@phphax) November 8, 2015
get your act together @FBI smh
#FreePalestine
#CWA pic.twitter.com/jsH1y4m1vB— cracka (@phphax) November 8, 2015
‘Cracka,’ who provided Wired with a screenshot of the JABS online portal, tweeted that “CWA did, indeed, have access to everybody in USA’s private information, now imagine if we was Russia or China.”
JABS,
according to a former FBI agent, shows “all arrests and bookings no
matter the sealing,” but some sealed records “will only have limited
data.” He told Wired, “The records go in but after processing they can
be removed if they are sensitive matters, or more likely there will be
[a] flag when you run a name to contact a specific agency. Hackers might
be removed if they are potentially cooperating witnesses or sources.”
He added, “It takes some serious work or threats to get the records
removed.”
is mentioned online by the FBI, ATF, DOJ, U.S. Marshals and others. The
hackers claim to have had access to “law enforcement’s Enterprise File
Transfer Service, which the government describes as a web interface for
securely sharing and transmitting files,” and provided a lengthy menu
list of sensitive tools to which they allegedly had access.
The menu included
Enterprise File Transfer Service, Cyber Shield Alliance, DFS Test,
eGuardian Training, IC3, IDEAFX, Intelink, Intelink IM, and Justice
Enterprise File Sharing. Additionally, the portal supposedly provides
access to Special Interest Group, Virtual Command Center, National Data
Exchange, National Gang Intelligence Center, Repository for Individuals
of Special Concern, RISSNET, ViCAP Web National Crime Database, Active
Shooter Resources Page, Malware Investigator, Homeland Security
Information Network, and eGuardian.
One recent tweet from the hacker shows a document allegedly from the FBI database about
Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison while sabu got off scot-free for his cooperation. pic.twitter.com/FyiGiIQQLS
— Thwarting exploits (@IncursioSubter) November 8, 2015
