Skip to main content

British Schoolboy Who Hacked CIA Director Gets 2-Year Prison Term. The British teenager who managed to hack into the online accounts of several high-profile US government employees sentenced to two years in prison on Friday. Kane Gamble, now 18, hacked into email accounts of former CIA director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, and other senior FBI officials—all from his parent's home in Leicestershire. Gamble, who went by the online alias Cracka, was just 15 at the time of carrying out those attacks and was the alleged founder of a hacking group calling themselves Crackas With Attitude(CWA). The notorious pro-Palestinian hacking group carried out a series of embarrassing attacks against U.S. intelligence officials and leaked personal details of 20,000 FBI agents, 9,000 officers from Department of Homeland Security, and some number of DoJ staffers in 2015. The teenager was arrested in February 2016 at his home in Coalville and pleaded guilty to 8 charges last October of "performing a function with intent to secure unauthorised access" and 2 charges of "unauthorised modification of computer material." On Friday afternoon in the Old Bailey central criminal court in London, Gamble was finally sentenced after his first sentencing hearing in January was postponed, and the judge ruled that he'll have to serve 2 years at a youth detention center, BBC reported. While Gamble's defence said he was "naive" and never meant to "harm" any individuals during the court hearing, the judge said he carried out "an extremely nasty campaign of politically-motivated cyber terrorism." Between June 2015 and February 2016, Gamble posed as Brennan and tricked call center and helpline staff into giving away broadband and cable passwords, using which his team also gained access to extremely sensitive documents for intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iran. Besides hacking into their networks, Gamble also taunted his victims and their families, bombarded them with calls and messages, released their personal details, downloaded and installed porn onto their computers and took control of their iPads and TV screens. Gamble even made hoax calls to Brennan's home and took control of his wife's iPad. At one point, he also sent DHS secretary Johnson a photograph of his daughter and said he would f*** her. Gamble also phoned Mr. Johnson's wife, leaving a disturbing voicemail message which said: "Hi Spooky, am I scaring you?," and even managed to display the message "I own you" on the couple's home television. Gamble said he targeted the US government because he was "getting more and more annoyed about how corrupt and cold-blooded the US Government" was and "decided to do something about it." According to previous reports, Gamble is suffering from an autistic spectrum disorder, and at the time of his offending, he had the mental development of a 12 or 13-year-old. Gamble's defence had argued court on Friday for a suspended sentence, so he can sit his GCSEs in June and read computer science studies at university to pursue a "useful" career. Two other members of Crackas With Attitude—Andrew Otto Boggs and Justin Gray Liverman—were arrested by FBI in September 2016 and had already been sentenced to two and five years in federal prison respectively.

British Schoolboy Who Hacked CIA Director Gets 2-Year Prison Term.

The British teenager who managed to hack into the online accounts of several high-profile US government employees sentenced to two years in prison on Friday.

Kane Gamble, now 18, hacked into email accounts of former CIA director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, and other senior FBI officials—all from his parent's home in Leicestershire.

Gamble, who went by the online alias Cracka, was just 15 at the time of carrying out those attacks and was the alleged founder of a hacking group calling themselves Crackas With Attitude(CWA).

The notorious pro-Palestinian hacking group carried out a series of embarrassing attacks against U.S. intelligence officials and leaked personal details of 20,000 FBI agents, 9,000 officers from Department of Homeland Security, and some number of DoJ staffers in 2015.

The teenager was arrested in February 2016 at his home in Coalville and pleaded guilty to 8 charges last October of "performing a function with intent to secure unauthorised access" and 2 charges of "unauthorised modification of computer material."

On Friday afternoon in the Old Bailey central criminal court in London, Gamble was finally sentenced after his first sentencing hearing in January was postponed, and the judge ruled that he'll have to serve 2 years at a youth detention center, BBC reported.

While Gamble's defence said he was "naive" and never meant to "harm" any individuals during the court hearing, the judge said he carried out "an extremely nasty campaign of politically-motivated cyber terrorism."

Between June 2015 and February 2016, Gamble posed as Brennan and tricked call center and helpline staff into giving away broadband and cable passwords, using which his team also gained access to extremely sensitive documents for intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iran.

Besides hacking into their networks, Gamble also taunted his victims and their families, bombarded them with calls and messages, released their personal details, downloaded and installed porn onto their computers and took control of their iPads and TV screens.

Gamble even made hoax calls to Brennan's home and took control of his wife's iPad. At one point, he also sent DHS secretary Johnson a photograph of his daughter and said he would f*** her.

Gamble also phoned Mr. Johnson's wife, leaving a disturbing voicemail message which said: "Hi Spooky, am I scaring you?," and even managed to display the message "I own you" on the couple's home television.

Gamble said he targeted the US government because he was "getting more and more annoyed about how corrupt and cold-blooded the US Government" was and "decided to do something about it."

According to previous reports, Gamble is suffering from an autistic spectrum disorder, and at the time of his offending, he had the mental development of a 12 or 13-year-old.

Gamble's defence had argued court on Friday for a suspended sentence, so he can sit his GCSEs in June and read computer science studies at university to pursue a "useful" career.

Two other members of Crackas With Attitude—Andrew Otto Boggs and Justin Gray Liverman—were arrested by FBI in September 2016 and had already been sentenced to two and five years in federal prison respectively.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

UGANDA ELECTORAL COMMISSION TO ELIMINATE NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION CARDS (IDs) FOR 2021 GENERAL ELECTIONS.

The elimination of using National IDs (Ndagamuntu) for the 2021 elections should not have come as a surprise. One would be very NAIVE to think that Bobi Wine has not prepared for this in his Business Plan under the RISK section. It is public knowledge that our EC is not independent.  It is also public knowledge that Military Dictator Yoweri Museveni will never lose an election. What stunned us this morning is when we noticed that on social media, people were mocking Bobi with his "get your Ndagamuntu".  We are on record for saying to all Our readers that the National ID is like Apartheid in South Africa. Students of History would know how those IDs were being used to arrest people, deny them jobs, deny them basic services. Consequently, Bobi was not wrong and will never be wrong on the Ndagamuntu. Except the ones attacking him and mocking him forget that in Uganda, now, no National ID (Ndagamuntu), no service.  If you have not been denied registering your child i...

Parliament Urges Government to Provide Shs 4 Billion to Media Houses to Run Awareness Campaign on Tourism in Uganda.

Parliament also urged Gov’t to provide additional Shs4Bn to UTB to engage international and national media houses in production of positive media stories for improved destination image, following reports of drop in number of tourists from US, Europe and China visiting Uganda. "The National Development Plan targeted to cumulatively attract 281,760 International Tourist arrivals from US, Europe & China but only 67,252 arrivals were registered by the end of the first half of FY 2023/24. The U.S, Europe & China were key target source for leisure tourist who stay longer than business tourists. However, statistics show that international arrivals from the aforementioned areas have continue to drop. The UTB requires Shs4Bn to engage international & national media houses in production of positive tourism stories to improve destination perception in light of recent controversies that shade the destination in a bad light. However, this has remained unfunded,” said La...

UPDF has Rehabilitated Boreholes and Shallow Wells in Maracha District Ahead of 45th Tarehe Sita.

Story by Osuta Yusuf. Maracha District.  30-12-2025. 📸: The technical team fixing some of the  boreholes. Photo by Osuta Yusuf, Our News Reporter. The Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) which is the legally constituted security organ to guard and protect the people, properties and sovereignty of Uganda, have rehabilitated a total of 9 Boreholes and shallow wells at the tune of 15m Shs in 7 Sub-counties out of the 19 Sub-counties in Maracha District through a service dubbed under the Theme of “QUICK IMPACT PROJECT” directly financed by the UPDF, ahead of preparation for the celebration of their next year's 2026 Tarehe Sita anniversary. 📸: Official launch of UPDF’s 45th Tarehe Sita celebration ahead of the due date 6-February-2026. Courtesy Photo. The UPDF Tarehe Sita is an annual public holiday and event that takes place on every 6th of February, the date when the then Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) party now turned as National Resistance Army / Movement (NRA / M) headed b...