Cybersecurity

HACKING THE CIA DIRECTOR’S AOL ACCOUNT WAS A POLITICAL ACT

The vast majority of media coverage of the recent hack of the personal AOL account of CIA director John Brennan omits the hacker’s political motivations. Instead, these reports rely on stereotypes of hacker to disregard the importance of his message.

A teenager hacked into the personal AOL account of CIA director John Brennan. The teen, who remains anonymous, explicitly informed multiple media outlets he committed the act to “free Palestine” or call attention to the issue of violence against Palestinians. Some documents from Brennan’s account have been published by WikiLeaks.