Posted on June 17, 2017 at 3:13 PM
US Department Defense Hacking Debacle: British Citizen Pleads Guilty as Charged
A citizen of Britain has pleaded guilty to breaching American military communication system and making away with over 800 user profiles from its data bank; this much was made known by reports made available to reporters.
The hacker aged 25 named Caffrey Sean admitted to crimes that contravene the Computer Misuse Act, this comes on the heels of his confession of stealing information the United States Defense Department (DOD)’s Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services.
According to reports, Sean Caffery carted off sensitive information such as passwords, usernames, ranks, and Email addresses of about 800 Department of Defense Employees. He was also said to have taken the International Mobile Equipment Identity Number (IMEI) data linked to over 30,000 phones.
This act occurred on the 15th of June 2014. He was caught by men of NCA’s National Cybercrime Unite (NCCU) and West Midlands police back in the year 2015 after investigations traced the source of the breach to Caffrey’s internet.
However, in spite of Caffrey’s incredible hacking skills that made him breach the military computer systems, he was not smart enough to erase his tracks. He seemed to ignore anonymity services such as a proxy or Virtual Private Network (VPN).
It was reported by the NCA that findings from thorough Forensic investigations showed that stolen information was located on his hard drives, investigators concluded that the messaging profile linked to the invasion was registered using the suspect’s computers.
Caffrey’s account supposedly made use of a rather funny username called “ISIS Freedom Fighters“. There is, however, no proof that he has any link to the terrorist organisation. He was said to use the ISIS account to upload a screen of some of the information he got. Caffrey uploaded a message that seemed to attack another hacker named Lizard Squad, an organisation reputed for its compromising online activities’
According to findings, the message sent by the suspect to the Lizard Squad read “we smite the lizards, Lizard Squad your end is close, we are within your database, and we have gained control of your satellites. The missiles shall rein on you who claim alliance, watch over your heads, **T-47:59:59 until lift you take off”. He went on to claim that they are many, they are united, and that they are everywhere.
An investigations manager at the NCA named Young Janey was quoted as saying that coordinated investigations carried out by the FBI, NCA, and the DoD’s defence Criminal Investigations services made it impossible for the suspect to deny the allegations levelled against him.
The report quoted young as saying that cyber criminals should not think that they can escape with their crimes, he warned that the NCA also had people with skills such as that of the suspect, just that their job requires that to catch people like Caffrey.
The breach by Caffrey led to repair cost of over 600,000 dollars. Ever since the hack, a couple of United States Military organisations have implemented whistle-blowing policies aimed at encouraging hackers to report any loophole observed in their computer systems in exchange for money.
