CIA Email Hack? Director John Brennan's Private AOL Account Reportedly Breached By Teenager

An anonymous high school student is claiming to have cracked the personal email account of CIA Director John Brennan in the name of Palestinian freedom. The hacker, who runs the @phphax Twitter account under the name "cracka," exclusively told the New York Post Sunday that he and a friend accessed Brennan's private account -- and, with it, data like Social Security numbers and a document requesting security clearance.

The hacker, who told the Post he likes to smoke marijuana, said he's part of a group called Crackas With Attitude. He claimed to have gone into Brennan's AOL account Oct. 12 after resetting his password with personal information gleaned from Verizon. Brennan reportedly deleted his account Friday. The CIA sent the Post a statement saying it was "aware of the reports that have surfaced on social media and have referred the matter to the appropriate authorities.”

Since last week, "cracka" has been posting what he alleges are screenshots from Brennan's account, often tagging National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden and using the hashtags #FreePalestine and #FreeGaza. Cracka published an alleged email excerpt where an official references a "proposal to ban the use of certain harsh interrogation techniques expressly prohibited by the Army Field Manual" -- commonly known as torture -- and a spreadsheet of administrators' personal information. He also shared screenshots purporting to be of Brennan's car insurance card and cell phone bill.

In separate posts, cracka wrote that CWA also had call logs belonging to Avril Haines, the deputy national security adviser for the White House. The user also linked to a file that included phone numbers appearing to belong to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson's family members. The file included a line that said the hackers were "resuming attacks on Homeland Security for killing innocent people and starting wars for the fun of it."

The Department of Homeland Security gave CNN a statement Monday saying it also had forwarded information about the alleged hack to authorities and that "we don't discuss the secretary's security information." A source also told CNN that it didn't seem that any classified information had been leaked.

Reports of the Brennan breach came about a week after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed her own email issue at the first Democratic presidential debate. News that Clinton had used a personal email server -- and deleted thousands of messages -- during her time in office broke in March. The State Department has been releasing her messages to the public in batches since then.