James Comey recently admitted that he was secretly on Twitter and Instagram and it seems that Gizmodo has figured out which account he is operating in stealth….well not so stealth anymore.
According to Gizmodo:
Digital security and its discontents—from Hillary Clinton’s emails to ransomware to Tor hacks—is in many ways one of the chief concerns of the contemporary FBI. So it makes sense that the bureau’s director, James Comey, would dip his toe into the digital torrent with a Twitter account. It also makes sense, given Comey’s high profile, that he would want that Twitter account to be a secret from the world, lest his follows and favs be scrubbed for clues about what the feds are up to. What is somewhat surprising, however, is that it only took me about four hours of sleuthing to find Comey’s account, which is not protected.
The sleuth at Gizmodo was tipped off by Comey’s own words regarding his Twitter and Instagram:
… I care deeply about privacy, treasure it. I have an Instagram account with nine followers. Nobody is getting in. They’re all immediate relatives and one daughter’s serious boyfriend. I let them in because they’re serious enough. I don’t want anybody looking at my photos. I treasure my privacy and security on the internet. My job is public safety.
Naturally, the next step would be to find any of his children’s accounts to see who they were connected to…
After some trial and error, I found that his 22-year-old son, Brien Comey, seemed to have the largest online presence as a basketball star at Kenyon College. Go Lords.
It wasn’t easy to find Brien Comey on Twitter, though, because his first name is also the middle name of his father, who more people than you might think call “James Brien Comey” on Twitter.
After finding one of Comey’s sons on Instagram, a request was made to follow the account. Instagram then ‘suggests’ other people to follow based on an algorithm that tracks other people associated with this account…OOPS!
A quick Google search of Reinhold Niebuhr revealed:
By senior year, Comey was a double major in religion and chemistry, writing a senior thesis on theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and televangelist Jerry Falwell and on his way to the University of Chicago Law School
The name Reinhold Niebuhr ultimately led the investigation to the Twitter account which is now protected from public viewing.
Strange how the FBI Director can’t even cover his own tracks on social media…
Read the rest of Gizmodo’s report here where they go into more detail about how they tracked down the account and what Comey has been secretly reading on Twitter.
