Two members believed to be part of the hacking group "Crackas With Attitude" have been arrested for allegedly breaching the computer systems and personal online accounts of several U.S. government officials and their families, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia.
Andrew Otto Boggs, 22, reportedly active under the handle "INCURSIO," and Justin Gray Liverman, 24, believed to operate as "D3F4ULT," were arrested by the FBI on Sept. 8 for their supposed connection to a group that gained notoriety for a string of hacks between October 2015 and February 2016.
The group first achieved prominence when Cracka, who may or may not be the group's leader and a teenager under investigation in the United Kingdom, hacked the personal AOL email account of CIA Director John Brennan on Oct. 12, then bragged about it under the Twitter handle @phphax. On Oct. 15, the group's Twitter handle @_CWA_ released a screen grab with private information of 20 intelligence officials.
The group subsequently claimed responsibility for targeting the personal accounts of White House Deputy National Security Advisor Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and John Holdren (President Obama's senior advisrr on science and technology), among others.
CWA has also used social engineering techniques to gain access to the Department of Justice computer system, leading to the disclosure of contact information for 20,000 FBI and 9,000 DHS employees, according to Vice Media's Motherboard, the site that has closely followed CWA activities and initially broke the arrest story.
According to the FBI affidavit summarized by Motherboard, both Boggs and Liverman were apprehended after being attached to CWA-associated Twitter handles through their use of IP addresses connected to relatives. Direct Twitter messaging and chat logs, among other forensic records, reveal Boggs and Liverman allegedly encouraging Cracka to publish the stolen information. "I'm going to help you with 0wning the [U.S. Government Agency affiliated with Victim 1]," Boggs allegedly wrote, according to Motherboard.
Additionally, phone numbers linked to Boggs and Liverman's multiple Twitter screen names were allegedly used to harass victims.
However, Motherboard reports that another CWA-associated hacker, known as Zoom, claims that Boggs is the wrong person because INCURSIO is a woman, and that these arrests won't dilute the group's agenda.
"Cracka isn't a person, cracka is an idea," Zoom tells Motherboard. "We are all cracka, we all feel that way deep down. Just look at our country and who we have running for president. America needed CWA, it needed a wake up call."
