British teenager who 'cyber-terrorised' US intelligence officials gets two years detention

A British teenager who "terrorised" some of America’s most senior intelligence officials after tricking his way into their email and phone accounts has been sentenced to two years in youth detention.

Kane Gamble was just 15 when he first targeted CIA and FBI bosses from his bedroom in Leicestershire, the Old Bailey heard.

Among material he accessed were documents – labelled “extremely sensitive” – about military and intelligence operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In one hack, he posted a message on the family TV of Jeh Johnson, secretary of homeland security: “I own you,” it said. In another, FBI deputy director Mark Giuliano became so spooked about his passwords being continually reset, he ordered specialist police protection.

Judge Mr Justice Haddon-Cave called Gamble’s crimes a “nasty campaign of politically motivated cyber terrorism".

Prosecutor John Lloyd-Jones QC said the 18-year-old's reign of terror – coordinated from his mother’s home in Coalville – lasted from June 2015 to February 2016.

He began by impersonating his victims and conned call centres at communications giants Comcast and Verizon into divulging confidential information about them.

Among accounts he tricked his way into were those of then-CIA chief John Brennan, director of national intelligence James Clapper and deputy national security adviser Avril Haines.

After targeting Mr Brennan, Gamble posted anonymously on Twitter saying: "CIA set your game up homies.”

Senior science and technology adviser John Holdren was harassed in a so-called “swat" attack, when Gamble, having discovered his home address, made a hoax call to local police reporting an on-going crime.

The court was also told Gamble uploaded details of 20,000 FBI employees obtained from the US Department of Justice, with the message: "This is for Palestine."

And the youngster – who founded the now defunct Crackas With Attitude hacking group – even turned on the families of those he targeted. In a disturbing voicemail left for Mr Johnson's wife Susan DiMarco he was heard asking: "Am I scaring you?"

Mr Lloyd-Jones said aggravating features included the "invasion" of victims professional and private lives, as well as those of their families.

He said: "So many of the American witnesses attest to a drop in confidence in the use of portals, many of the agencies withdrawing their contributions, reducing the effectiveness in the wider law enforcement community in America."

William Harbage QC, for Gamble, said the defendant never meant to “harm and traumatise people on an individual basis".

He said his actions were an unusual response to opinions he had read about US foreign policy in an online chat room.

He said: “In a naive, immature and childish way, he thought he could do something about it, he could make a nuisance of himself by targeting people in America and that would somehow get them to change US policy as a result of what he was doing from his bedroom.

"When members of the families were brought into it, he did not think through the consequences. The thought seems to have been 'I want to grab attention of the US government and getting the families involved is some way that will grab attention even more'."

He added the teenager was due to sit GCSEs in June and hoped to read computer studies at university and pursue a "useful" career.

Gamble, who is on the autistic spectrum, had previously pleaded guilty to eight charges of performing a function with intent to secure unauthorised access to computers and two charges of unauthorised modification of computer material.

He made no reaction as he was sentenced but his mother, who supported him in court, could be seen weeping.

The judge also ordered the seizure of Gamble's computers.