Hacker manages to obtain wealth of confidential information on former US presidents
An email hacker is under criminal investigation after he managed to access personal photographs, paintings, security information and even funeral details on the former US presidents George and George W Bush.
The American Secret Service has confirmed it is looking into how the hacker managed to access the material, which included security codes for family homes, addresses, mobile phone numbers and email addresses for dozens of members of the Bush family, including the former presidents, their siblings and children.
The hacker, who called himself Guccifer, also published private pictures of the older former president in a hospital bed on the internet as well as emails sent between staff and family regarding funeral plans should he fail to recover from illness.
The emails also went into detail on what might be said in a eulogy.
The American Secret Service has been reported to believe that most of the information was gathered through six private email accounts, which stored messages sent between 2009 and last year.
Dorothy Bush, the youngest daughter of Bush senior and his wife, Barbara, took to the website, The Smoking Gun, where some of the hacked material first emerged. She asked: “Why would someone do this?"
The Secret Service and spokesmen for the former presidents have not commented further than confirming a criminal investigation is underway.