UNITED STATES: A cyber security expert has exploited a glitch in the official CIA’s X account and diverted the audience to his telegram channel.
The ethical hacker manipulated a link on the CIA’s official X handle, which the agency uses to recruit spies.
What did the hacker do?
CIA has a link on its X handle, formerly Twitter, where it recruits informants secretly.
The informants, specifically Russains, are facilitated by the agency that would like to help safeguard American interests.
The text in the link was truncated, directing users to an unused Telegram username.
The BBC report suggests Mr. McSheehan immediately created and registered the username to protect secret communication.
The agency corrected the mistake within an hour after the BBC’s request.
The hacker did it for security
The ethical hacker Kevin McSheehan redirected traffic to his Telegram channel to prevent hostile agencies from interception.
“I saw that the official Telegram link they were sharing could be hijacked – and my biggest fear was that a country like Russia, China or North Korea could easily intercept Western intelligence,” McSheehan said.
