Posted on 06/14/2015 8:43:28 AM PDT by Rockitz
MI6 has pulled its spies out of 'hostile countries' and America's intelligence agencies are on high alert after Russia and China cracked encrypted files leaked by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The top-secret documents contain information that could lead to the identification of British and American spies, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services.
A senior Home Office official accused Snowden - the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor responsible for the biggest confidential information leak in US history - of having 'blood on his hands' after they gained access to over one million files.
Security services have reported increasing difficulties in tracking terrorists and dangerous criminals via email, chat rooms and social media since he exposed Western intelligence-gathering methods, the Sunday Times reports.
Now aides in British Prime Minister David Cameron's office have confirmed the top-secret material is now in the hands of spy chiefs in Moscow and Beijing.
A senior Downing Street source told the Sunday Times: 'It is the case that Russians and Chinese have information.
'It has meant agents have had to be moved and that knowledge of how we operate has stopped us getting vital information.'
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(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
So does the GOP.
IIRC, Obama himself outed a bunch of spies at some point.
Meanwhile, the disposition of Beau Bergdahl will go unheralded.
either way he’s not a hero to me. Heroes dont live in Russia after complaining about lack of freedom. He’s a traitor. And i hope he’s always looking over his shoulder.
Yeah, the timing's just a little too much. Snowden was about NSA spying on private citizens. The breeches of personal, sensitive data of spies, etc are what we just learned about. Maybe, just maybe, US tech priorities have been askew. And that's not Snowden's fault.
PROPAGANDA 101
But not HALF as serious as the “outing” of spymaster, Valerie Plame/sar
The OPM mess did focus particularly on people who’d been background checked for TS clearances (and higher, presumably). It does sound like some cross-checking was performed.
The Chicoms hacked FedGov computers less than 2 weeks ago. It is likely they obtained classified info from that breach. This news story provides FedGov with a scapegoat to cover its own incompetence with securing its computer systems.
It’s the Regime’s Benghazi Syndrome; they always concoct a story to blame someone else for their mistakes.
That was done by Colin Powell’s butt boy from State and had nothing to do with Scooter Libby. Throwing Dick Armitage in jail wouldn’t have been close enough to the President.
Someone needs to take him out.
“... Snowden was about NSA spying on private citizens.”
That was the media headline, but never what Eddy was about. The main theft was minimized or omitted entirely by most media.
The OPM breach was very likely the result of the data Eddy stole at the behest of his Chinese handlers - remember he went to China first. With US M&M, China is able to crack Gov security at will.
Eddy’s main theft was not NSA spying on citizens, but the theft of Methods and Means, as well as the name of projects and personnel at agencies like NSA, DIA etc. Apparently, he also got UK data on M&M as well, thus MI6 has to close shop or lose agents.
Meanwhile, Eddy works for some branch of the Russian FSA, likely gathering the very same records that NSA is now forbidden, and the conversations ... oh the irony. Your phone data is safe with Eddy in Russia, while your personnel records are safely stored on the world’s largest data base in China.
True. He is nothing but a scapegoat, and this news follows the administration’s MO to a T.
Sure Snowden broke this oath and revealed intel. He is undeniably guilty of that. And he is wrong for doing so, regardless of the admirable intentions. But it was IT hacks that compromised the entire EQIP database. It included info on every undercover asset in every country around the world. And a well documented outline of how to compromise them. Snowden did not hand that info to anyone. He does not deserve the blame for it.
Incompetence by OPM is to blame. Their IA guys suck and are criminally negligent! A weak security posture and a lack of network monitoring contributed to this. The ISSO should be be criminally charged for lax security and allowing remote access to a level 1 system. He obviously fudged his C&A audit too. The DBA deserves some blame for not noticing a long running export as well as the network/firewall guys for not noticing that much outbound traffic. The systems integrator deserves some blame for writing complex crappy software that did not provide for more robust monitoring. The NSA deserves a heckuva lot of blame for this as well. They created and hid numerous zero-day exploits which were undoubtedly used to compromise the systems. Such exploits don’t remain secret for long and if the NSA tried to keep them secret, unpatched and exploitable so they can be used against others, they are deserving of blame as well.
Just my $0.02.
While the Feds may be incompetent, Eddy the Snowman gave anyone with access to the data he stole the means of bypassing that security as it was developed by NSA to begin with. China got his data first.
BTW: the Chicoms breached the system last year (the breach was only revealed 2 weeks ago) and are still in the Fed system, as no one knows where the malicious code (to send more data or go to another dB) the Chinks left behind is located; this cannot be fixed unless the databases are permanently disconnected from all outside sources, thus crippling them.
If you wish to believe that all of this is made up and a scapegoating diversion, fine, but sometimes the stories are true.
Maybe, but I doubt it. Snowden stole a huge amount of information, far more than what’s been reported. That SOB needs to burn. I can only hope that now that Russia has his data that they’ll just toss him to the wolves since he’s no longer valuable to them.
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