The hacker managed to redirect potential CIA informants to himself in telegrams

The American hacker managed to redirect the communication channel with potential CIA informants to his Telegram account. He took advantage of a vulnerability in the X social network and the carelessness of American intelligence specialists. The story was told by the British BBC channel.

In May, the US Central Intelligence Agency launched a Telegram channel with instructions in English and Russian on how to contact the service through the Tor browser. The link to the channel was fixed, in particular, in the CIA account on social networks of Kh.

American computer security specialist Kevin McSheehan drew attention to the fact that the link in X does not lead to the address specified by the CIA, but to an unregistered account. He registered it, now all potential informants who click on this link got into his account, says the BBC.

The hacker indicated there that users should not share information with him. In an interview with the BBC, McSheehan said that he fears that such a vulnerability could be used by Russia, China or the DPRK. The British channel turned to the CIA for a comment, the intelligence agency did not respond to the journalists’ request, but corrected the link within a few hours.

• Russian legislation considers cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies to be treason. In April 2023, the authorities increased the maximum penalty for this article from 20 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment.