Snowden didn't seem to have to work very hard to grab top secret classified government info.
Posted on 06/14/2013 11:49:16 AM PDT by null and void
The NSA leaker reportedly just walked out of work with some of America's big secrets on a thumb drive in his pocket
Snowden didn't seem to have to work very hard to grab top secret classified government info.
A week after Edward Snowden's leaks about National Security Agency surveillance and data-gathering were first reported, and four days after he revealed himself as the leaker, the news media is figuring out how the 29-year-old IT systems administrator managed his potentially huge data heist.
If you're concerned about national security, the new revelations will probably dismay you; if you appreciate leaking of government secrets, Snowden's technique is likely encouraging: Theft by thumb drive.
The NSA and other spy and military agencies have long known the dangers of the innocent-seeming portable USB flash drive. In October 2008, the NSA discovered that a thumb drive loaded with malware had infected the military's secure internal network. The Pentagon then (at least temporarily) banned the use of thumb drives — NSA commanders even reportedly ordered USB ports filled in with liquid cement.
But "of course, there are always exceptions," especially for system administrators, a former NSA official tells the Los Angeles Times. "There are people who need to use a thumb drive and they have special permission. But when you use one, people always look at you funny."
That doesn't appear to have fazed Snowden. Not only do investigators know he pilfered the top secret files on a thumb drive, they "know how many documents he downloaded and what server he took them from," a U.S. official tells the Los Angeles Times. They don't know how he accessed those files, but as a system administrator, Snowden had broad access to key parts of the NSA network — and, says Ken Dilanian at the Los Angeles Times, "presumably a keen understanding of how those networks are monitored for unauthorized downloads."
In any case, Dilanian says, "confirmation of a thumb drive solved one of the central mysteries in the case: How Snowden, who worked for contracting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, physically removed classified material from a spy agency famous for strict security and ultra-secrecy."
Didn't Snowden's behavior, or his decision to take unpaid leave just a month after starting his job in Hawaii, arouse any suspicions? Sort of, says Mark Hosenball at Reuters. According to Hosenball's sources, Snowden's prolonged absence "prompted a hunt for the contractor, first by his employer Booz Allen Hamilton and then by the U.S. government." Hosenball continues:
Government agents spent several days in the field trying to find Snowden, according to the source, but they were unable to do so before the first news story based on Snowden's revelations appeared in The Guardian and then in The Washington Post. The government did not know Snowden was the source for the stories until he admitted it on Sunday, the sources said. [Reuters][Snowden] was only on the job for around four weeks when he told his employers he was ill and requested leave without pay, the sources said. When Booz Allen checked in with him, Snowden said he was suffering from epilepsy and needed more time off. When he failed to return after a longer period, and the company could not find him, it notified intelligence officials because of Snowden's high-level security clearance, one of the sources said.
Some people believe Snowden is exaggerating his skill level and knowledge, as he apparently inflated his salary and spying capabilities, but in interviews with colleagues, Snowden comes out looking pretty smart. He had a reputation as a very gifted "geek," a source tells Reuters. "This guy's really good with his fingers on the keyboard. He's really good."
His prowess with computer networks isn't a surprise, says John Herrman at BuzzFeed, now that we've discovered he's "a member of a growing and increasingly powerful alumni group: The internet people." For a few years, and more than 800 posts, Snowden was a frequent contributor to Ars Technica forums — the successor to Usenet and precursor of Reddit — making him "a part of the internet's relatively small but powerful creative nucleus."
Once he opened his mouth, Snowden outed himself not just as the leaker but as an internet person, says Herman, and his forum persona "is instantly recognizable to anyone who spent time in a major forum in the early to mid-2000s."
He's a bit of a know-it-all, a bit of a troll, opinionated about both subjects he knows well and ones he doesn't. He unsubtly references his sex life, his security clearance, and his mysterious work. He was not shy about giving advice, which is probably the defining trait of the forum power user....A whole group of people out there are just like Snowden, says BuzzFeed's Herman, and that should make the NSA, and any organization with secrets, a little nervous. Because when you move from how to why, the answer is a little unsettling, Herman says: "This isn't about 'hacktivism' or some kind of unified cause. This is about the children of the internet coming of age."Most of the people he used to interact with are long gone — like Snowden, they grew up, and receded back into the real world. But he took with him the set of values he either learned or became comfortable expressing online: A keen interest in rights and speech, particularly where they concern the internet and privacy, suspicion of government and authority, a belief in both free markets and free-flowing information, and a set of cultural and aesthetic values that both set him apart from the mainstream and endear him to his people — the internet people. [BuzzFeed]
Hacking is a Myth ,it’s really the Thumb Drive
my thumb drive just takes me in circles
If you watch his interview you can see where he kept his thumb drive. In his mouth!
The fact that his PC didn’t lock down when he inserted a thumb drive under his ID flies in the face of the company line that he was a low level tech.
thumb drives are so five minutes ago...it’s 16GB SDHC cards and such (maybe 32 or 64 GB now)...
My first computer in the 80s, cost $7000~ IBM. It had a 10 or 20 MB hard drive (I forget)! Remember 5 1/4 inch floppies? The floppies at work I used were 8 inchers!
Isn't that a requirement for all Reddit users? I believe it's even in the terms of use.
This sounds like the Clintonian strategy of smearing the messenger.
What happens when the basement geek grows up?
I like how they have to demonize him, to convict.
Notice they don’t mention what deep secrets were on the pages he supposedly loaded on his thumb drive and absconded with?
He was an internet user! Hisss He had opinions! Hisss He was a legend in his own mind! Hisss He offered advise! Hisss
This guy really does sound bad Mildred. I sure hope they stop him!
Why he even thinks there are black and white issues, and rights should be observed. Hissss Hisss Hisss...
Frankly I’m shocked they even have USB ports on these computers. They could order them without.
Is this a top level security firm or not?
I’ve worked far less secure places that didn’t allow the use of them.
So now he only worked 4 weeks and was able to walk away with a treasure trove.
Kudos to NSA for collecting all of our private data in a system so insecure.
Fascinating, eh?
Didn’t some top Congress critters just a couple of days ago, after briefings with top intelligence officials, claim Snowden was lying about what he had and had taken?? Which is it, Super Snoop or Super Dupe?
That does not pass the smell test.
I know people who have worked in secure defense installations. The tower unit of their computer was encased in a chicken wire cage that prevents you from inserting any type of removable media.
Yep. What's amazing is I work on government computers and thumb-drives are verboten. If we plug one in, the network geeks know about it immediately. I wonder how lax the NSA is with its networked computers to allow this to occur. And some tell us we're supposed to trust and have trust in their abilities and motives. Someone should lose their job for allowing this to happen. All the same, I'm glad he was able to let us know what most of us already suspected - the Patriot Act part about being able to spy on those who were persons of interest and who were communicating with terrorist cells was not a secret; the secret seems to be that they were revving it up to include everything about all of us - that's why they are so pi$$ed about him "destroying National Security".
That’s what I would expect here too. Strange huh...
If I were CIA and wanted to bring certain information forward with implicating any one at the top or anyone who could be called to testify, I’d send a young agent away from his CIA position into the jungle of the agency that was to be exposed..... Just to give him cover ya know...
He may have taken Petraeus down but left an angry segment of the agency actively in place
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