WikiLeaks to release emails from CIA director’s personal AOL account

Announcement follows hacking of John Brennan’s email account on Monday

Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan: Wikileaks claims that it has obtained his personal emails and was about to make them public. Photograph:  Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan: Wikileaks claims that it has obtained his personal emails and was about to make them public. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

WikiLeaks said on Wednesday it would release emails from CIA director John Brennan’s personal AOL account. The account was compromised on Monday by hackers who claimed to be high school students.

The hackers, who call themselves CWA (Crackas With Attitude), said they had breached Brennan’s account and followed up with screenshots containing social security numbers, mobile phone numbers and email addresses. The numbers and email addresses appeared to be genuine.

The hackers have claimed the account contains sensitive information including Brennan’s 47-page application for top-secret security clearance. Authorities told CNN that Brennan’s account did not contain any classified information.

Multiple Twitter accounts associated with CWA have been deleted or suspended. Another account, used by a member calling him or herself PHPhax, is still live, but has not been active for 13 hours after a near-constant stream of information, teasers about the kind of data in the account, and jokes about how the account’s user would soon be “v&” (“vanned”) - taken away in a van. His last tweet was: “What are those flashing lights.”

READ MORE

One hacker, who first spoke to the New York Post , claimed to be "American high school student who is not Muslim and was motivated by opposition to US foreign policy and support for Palestine". The Twitter timeline for PHPhax includes many references to the UK. It's not clear which members of CWA are using any of the accounts at a given time. – Guardian service