FBI Arrests Two Hackers Who Hacked CIA Director, DOJ And Other Government Officials

FBI arrests 2 alleged Crackas with Attitude members that hacked the personal email account of CIA director John Brennan

Two North Carolina men who were allegedly involved in hacking of the CIA director’s personal emails as well as those of FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano have been arrested by the FBI on Thursday.

Andrew Otto Boggs, alias “INCURSIO,” 22, of North Wilkesboro, N.C., and Justin Gray Liverman, alias “D3F4ULT,” 24, of Morehead City, N.C. – who were accused of working with a high prolific hacking group called “Crackas with Attitude” (CWA) were arrested on Thursday morning on charges related to their alleged roles in the computer hacking and will be extradited to Alexandria next week, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

CWA’s most recently highly publicized hack of the Department of Justice (DOJ) led to the exposure of as many as 9,000 employees at the Department of Homeland Security and 20,000 at the FBI.

The FBI said that members of the group had fooled people into providing information that had allowed them to gain access to the victim’s accounts, a method known as social engineering. In October 2015, they breached Brennan’s AOL account by using social engineering techniques, specifically by imitating Brennan over the telephone and convincing customer service representatives to hand over his credentials.

The group went on a subsequent months-long hacking spree from October 2015 to February 2016 that targeted government officials and high profile leaders in the intelligence community, including Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James Comey.

Members of the group are also accused of uploading private information that they obtained from victims’ personal accounts to public websites, harassing victims and their family members on the phone, and defacing victims’ social media accounts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Despite their alleged prowess at imitating members of the intelligence community, the suspects seem not to have been particularly tech savvy. The members frequently communicated over Twitter and posted about their hacks from there as well. However, this is what undid Boggs.

The affidavit claims that he logged into a Twitter account affiliated with the hacks from his father’s home, allowing authorities to trace the IP address. Liverman made the same learner mistake after logging into his Twitter account from an IP address that was registered to where he was living. The agency easily traced the IP addresses to discover the pair.

The FBI published a transcript of Twitter messages sent between Boggs and Liverman, who went online respectively as “Incursio” and “D3f4ult,” in which they appeared to show some awareness that they could be traced. “I’m going to help you with 0wning,” Boggs said in one exchange. “If you need any publishing done, let me know I’ll go Charlotte [sic]and use public wifi to publish the stolen information.”

Another transcript of a chat conversation between a user named “Cracka,” who led the group and Liverman in which the former says he’s “swatting” a police department was also published by the FBI. Subsequently, Cracka tweeted a series of links about a bomb alert at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, the affidavit says.

Authorities in the United Kingdom arrested a 16-year-old allegedly behind the “Cracka” persona in February, as well as a 15-year-old thought to be a perpetrator named “Cubed,” after which the group ceased operating. The FBI presumptively had clues leading to Boggs and Liverman at that time, both of whom had become paranoid, according to the affidavit.

Boggs and Liverman are not the first members of CWA to be caught. Authorities in the United Kingdom arrested a 16-year-old allegedly behind the “Cracka” persona in February, as well as a 15-year-old thought to be a perpetrator named “Cubed” living in Scotland.

At least three other members of the conspiracy are located in the United Kingdom and are being investigated by British authorities, according to the criminal complaint.

Source: Motherboard

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FBI Most Wanted — Three 'Syrian Electronic Army' Hackers Charged for Cyber Crime

Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) Hackers have made their place on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

The US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are willing to pay$100,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of the heads of the infamous hacking group Syrian Electronic Army.

On Tuesday, the DoJ unsealed charges against three suspected members of the alleged group:

1. Ahmad Umar Agha (aka The Pro), 22
2. Firas Dardar (aka The Shadow), 27
3. Peter Romar, 36

Agha and Dardar were allegedly involved in hacking Associated Press Twitter account in April 2013 and spreading a false rumor claiming that the White House had been bombed, injuring President Obama. This caused a temporary stock market dip.

The two hackers allegedly engaged in a long-running cyber-propaganda campaign in support of the Syrian President Bashar al‑Assad. They hacked into various Twitter accounts of the main news organizations from 2011 to 2013.

Their victims included Reuters, the Associated Press, E! Online, Time, CNN, The Washington Post, The Daily Dot, Vice, Human Rights Watch, Harvard University, NASA (which assisted on the investigation), US Marine, Microsoft and even The Onion.

"The conspiracy was dedicated to spear-phishing and compromising the computer systems of the US government, as well as international organizations, media organizations and other private-sector entities that the SEA deemed as having been antagonistic toward the Syrian Government," the US Department of Justice (DoJ) statement reads.

Once successful, spear-phishing efforts by the duo allowed them to allegedly use stolen usernames and passwords to deface various websites, redirect their domains to the sites controlled by the conspiracy, steal email as well as hijack social media accounts.

All three alleged SEA members were using Gmail and Facebook accounts to coordinate and pass around stolen data. The Feds managed to track their activities after obtaining court orders to search their online accounts, which helped them identify the hackers.

Agha and Dardar are each charged with multiple conspiracies related to computer hacking including:

• Engaging in a hoax regarding a terrorist attack
• Attempting to cause mutiny of the US armed forces
• Access device fraud
• Illicit of authentication features
• Unlawful access to stored communications
• Unauthorized access to, and damage of, computers

Dardar and Romar, another collaborator, are separately charged with more conspiracies related to:

• Unauthorized access to, and damage of, computers
• Receiving the proceeds of extortion
• Money laundering
• Wire fraud
• Violations of the Syrian Sanctions Regulations

"The tireless efforts of US prosecutors and our investigative partners have allowed us to identify individuals who have been responsible for inflicting damage on US government and private entities through computer intrusions," US Attorney Dana Boente said in a statement. "Today's announcement demonstrates that we will continue to pursue these individuals no matter where they are in the world."

Arrest warrants have already been issued for all three hackers. Agha and Dardar have been added to the FBI's Most Wanted list. The bureau is offering a reward of US$100,000 for any information that leads to their arrest.

All of the three alleged members are thought to be resident in Syria. The United States government is inviting tip-offs.

Source : Click here

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The 7 Most Wanted Iranian Hackers By the FBI

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has lengthened its Most Wanted List by adding seven Iranian hackers who are accused of attacking a range of US banks and a New York dam.

On Thursday, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) charged seven Iranian hackers with a slew of computer hacking offences for breaking into computer systems of dozens of US banks, causing Millions of dollars in damages, and tried to shut down a New York dam.

The individual hackers, who allegedly worked for computer security companies linked to the Iranian government, were indicted for an "extensive campaign" of cyber attacks against the US financial sector.

All the seven hackers have been added to the FBI's Most Wanted list, and their names are:

1. Ahmad Fathi, 37
2. Hamid Firoozi, 34
3. Amin Shokohi, 25
4. Sadegh Ahmadzadegan (aka Nitr0jen26), 23
5. Omid Ghaffarinia (aka PLuS), 25
6. Sina Keissar, 25
7. Nader Saedi (aka Turk Server), 26

All the hackers have been charged with conducting numerous Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks on major U.S. banks, with Firoozi separately gaining unauthorized access to a New York dam's industrial automation control (SCADA) system in August and September of 2013.

"This unauthorized access allowed [Firoozi] to repeatedly obtain information regarding the status and operation of the dam, including information about the water levels, temperature, and status of the sluice gate, which is responsible for controlling water levels and flow rates," a DoJ statement reads.

Luckily, the sluice gate had already been manually disconnected for the purpose of maintenance at the time Firoozi attacked.

The hackers' work allegedly involved Botnets – networks of compromised machines – that hit major American banks, including Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, as well as the Nasdaq stock exchange with floods of traffics measuring up to 140Gbps and knocked them offline.

The Iranian hackers targeted more than 46 financial institutions and financial sector companies, costing them "tens of Millions of dollars in remediation costs" in preventing the attacks in various incidents spanning 2011 to 2013.

All the seven hackers will face up to 10 years in prison on computer hacking charges while Firoozi faces an additional 5-year prison sentence for breaking into a dam in Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, New York.

Source : Click Here

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