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]
Sounds like they may have interviewed one person who just didn't like the guy or something.
Well, when the goal is to impugn the leaker, he's going to be reported as a total clymer no matter who they interview, or what they had to say.
If abrasive, hard-headed knowitalls couldn't get security clearances then we'd neither have a military or any new military technology.
How many US World War II generals and admirals would get their clearances denied under your criteria (or if you also denied them to anyone weird or eccentric in any way)? How many technology innovators would also have their clearances denied? Kelly Johnson? No U-2 and no SR-71 Blackbird, then.
The obvious answer is that he didn't notify the agency or BAH he was planning a trip outside the US, and the FBI and NSA didn't start looking for him until after he'd already arrived in Hong Kong.
Our whole no-fly and watch list technology is based on stopping people from getting IN, not stopping people from getting OUT.
Actually that applies to all security - I've been in a lot of secure facilities, and I've had stuff searched on the way in, but I've never, ever been searched leaving (despite warnings that this happens sometimes.)
I bet less than 1 in 1000 here know what you are talking about.But the were neat tools for road rallies.
although I've never been screened or applied for work that required it, I know 3 people who have their clearance and went through it. I was interviewed once for each of them when they were being investigated. they ask all manner of questions about personality so I figured that was a large factor, they specifically asked questions about whether or not the personal was strong willed and/or argumentative. They also ask a lot of uncomfortable questions about sexual promiscuity and odd behaviors. I only hope I never have to be screened.... God only knows what those knucklehead moron buddies of mine would say about me when I was younger
He revealed no secrets, the only people that didn’t know this were the Low Information Voters, our enemies and our friends already know we spy on them.
You guys never heard of punch cards? Of course my first machine used a tape recorder. :)
Bradley Manning, accomplished the Biggest exposure of Official Secrets in American History, using a DVD.
Google Pics is cool
Do you know who imported the Curta back in the early 1960s ?
Hint: initial are W. G. and he was known for something else.
Here we go again, more disinformation from the wannabe pullitzer winners.
A report I read said three laptops filled with info.........
Sounds like Boston Marathon all over again..............
What’s a “Trator?”
:^)
A traitor does not does not pass the smell test.
The first casualty of war is the truth.
Exactly who the US government is at war with is an exercise left to the reader.
Nope, I was curious what the thing was and googled up a picture. Being curious I would like to know though.
Oh. I thought it was a traitor that failed the “i” test....
He could’ve Sandy Bergler’d them.
This past week I gave a briefing at a defense contractor near Washington. They were really strict. I had to email my PowerPoint to them. Not only no thumb drives allowed in, no cell phones or cameras either. The only electronics I could bring in were my hearing aids. They're concerned not only about secrets going out, but about viruses coming in. I was glad to see that tight security, even though it was a nuisance.
Thank you. That was good to hear.
They were also neat desktop calculators. I got mine to do the math associated with trust and estate legal work, such as tax returns and final accounts. Then, a year later, the first electronic desktop calculators came out at the same price, rendering my Curta an instant museum piece. Figuring that, in the not too distant future, it would be worth many times the $170.00 I’d paid for it, I put it and the instructions in the original box and saved them in a safe place. Now it’s worth about $1,400.
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