Justin Gray Liverman, of Morehead City, North Carolina, was a member of "Crackas With Attitude," a hacking group that used social engineering and unauthorized account access rather than technical exploits, to target senior U.S. government officials beginning around October 2015. Using online aliases including "D3F4ULT," Liverman, along with several co-conspirators including three UK-based teenagers, gained access to personal email and other accounts belonging to then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, then-FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, FBI executive assistant director Amy Hess, and others, and released stolen documents and personal information online. Brennan's hacked emails were subsequently published by WikiLeaks on October 21, 2015. The group also used stolen government credentials to access the FBI's Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal, exposing personal data on tens of thousands of FBI and Department of Homeland Security employees and more than 80 Miami-area law enforcement officers, made harassing "phonebombing" calls and threatening text messages to victims, and was linked to a false bomb threat against the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Liverman was arrested on September 8, 2016, and charged with conspiracy, unauthorized computer intrusions, aggravated identity theft, and related offenses. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit computer hacking. On September 8, 2017, he was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia to 5 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $145,000 in restitution toward more than $1.5 million in total losses to victims. At sentencing, the judge told Liverman, "These are no pranks... This computer hacking caused chaos."
