Kane Gamble

Kane Gamble or known online as Cracka is a British hacker from Leicester, who lead a hacktivist group called Crackas With Attitude (CWA) in 2015, responsible for hacking US government networks, emails and phone accounts of several US government officials.

Early Life

Kane Gamble was born on October 2, 1999, in Leicester, England. He was 15 years old at the time of the offenses that would bring him to international attention.

Hacktivism and Crackas With Attitude

In 2015, Gamble led a hacktivist group known as Crackas With Attitude (CWA), which carried out a series of intrusions targeting US government networks and the personal accounts of senior American officials. Among those targeted were former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, and Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Avril Haines. The group also breached the US Department of Justice network and the FBI's Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal.

Courts described the accessed materials as "extremely sensitive" documents relating to military and intelligence operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the information obtained was subsequently posted to WikiLeaks and other websites. Gamble stated that he committed the offenses to raise awareness for the situation in Palestine and the war in Iraq.

Arrest, Trial, and Sentencing

Gamble pleaded guilty to 10 charges related to the intrusions. Despite being a juvenile at the time of the offenses, he was sentenced to two years in a youth detention center. He served his sentence at HMP Belmarsh, a Category A maximum security prison in South East London.

Rehabilitation and Security Career

Gamble was released from imprisonment in 2019. Following his release, he redirected his technical skills toward legitimate security work, participating in bug bounty programs for a range of organizations. He received the maximum bounty of $5,000 from T-Mobile and has also conducted work for the UK Ministry of Defence and AT&T, among others.

In addition to bug bounty work, Gamble has had several Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) assigned to his name, including vulnerabilities identified in the encrypted messaging application Wire and in the content management platform Sitecore.

He currently works in the information security sector as a Senior Security Consultant, helping businesses identify and address vulnerabilities in their systems.