WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has claimed that a 14-year old could have broken into the personal email inbox belonging to John Podesta, a close aide of Hillary Clinton who was targeted among the wider alleged Russian state-sponsored hacks.
WikiLeaks has obtained and released tens of thousands of John Podesta’s emails, all of which can be found on the public domain, in the lead up to last year’s US presidential elections.
“We published several emails which show Podesta responding to a phishing email,” Assange stated In an interview with Sean Hannity, a Fox News presenter. “Podesta gave out that his password was the word ‘password’.”
Damningly, he added:
His own staff said ‘this email that you have received is totally legitimate’. This is something that a 14-year-old kid could have hacked.
The US intelligence community including agencies like the FBI, the DHS, in particular, point to Putin’s senior aides and officials as those who could have sanctioned the attacks. WikiLeaks’ disclosures, the authorities believe, were “consistent” with Russian-directed intrusions, effectively stating that the whistleblowing website was used by Russian authorities to influence the elections.
For his part, Assange denies the accusation, claiming that there was no evidence that “WikiLeaks is involved in that way.”
Pressing on, he added:
Now why am I confident about that? Well, because there is one person in the world, and I think it is actually only one, who knows exactly what is going on with our publications, and that’s me.
President-elect Donald Trump was quick to publicize Assange’s insights, stating: “Julian Assange said a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta – why was DNC so careless?”
The incoming president’s tweets continued, stating:
Somebody hacked the DNC but why did they not have ‘hacking defence’ like the RNC has and why have they not responded to the terrible things they did and said (like giving the questions to the debate to H). A total double standard! Media, as usual, gave them a pass.
Assange’s comments about the lack of Russian involvement in the hacks of several DNC entities comes in the days following an unprecedented set of sanctions imposed on Russia by President Obama in direct retaliation to the Russian state’s alleged hacking.
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