Posted on 06/16/2015 6:55:09 AM PDT by Rockitz
It's tough enough to be an undercover spy in the age of the Internet. China's hack of American personnel files just made it much, much harder.
The mega-hack of the Office of Personnel Management continues to get worse for Washington. Revelations of a second, even deeper intrusion into OPM servers bring distressing news that Pentagon employees, including intelligence personnel, are among the millions of Americans whose personal and security data have been compromised.
As The Daily Beast reported, this hack constitutes a disaster for Washington's counterintelligence operatives. Armed with very private information about the personal lives of millions of security clearance holders, foreign intelligence services can blackmail and coerce vulnerable officials. To make matters worse, foreign spies can use data purloined from OPM background investigations to head American mole-hunters off at the pass. For Beltway counterspies, the OPM breach will take decades to set right.
But there's an even more serious aspect of this compromise: the threat it poses to American intelligence operations abroad, particularly to officers serving under various false identities, or "covers," overseas. The Intelligence Community employs myriad cover mechanisms to protect the true identity of its spies posted outside the United States. Cover protects our officers and allows them to conduct their secret work without drawing as much attention to themselves. While many intelligence officers pose as diplomats, that is only one option, and some covers are deeper than others.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
I had wondered if CIA employees were included and just what information OPM has about them.
It isn’t just the agency employees and government personnel. All the normal experts and people they might use to collect and assess information all over the world are now potentially outed, solely because they have a clearance.
I remember back in the early 80’s that the Soviets were able to identify all CIA operatives in the field simply because their paychecks and retirement plans were different than regular Fed employees.......................
Yes Obummer, It happened on your watch.
HA! Good. They don't like it when THEY get spied on, but it's perfectly ok when it's the American public that's getting spied on. Sorry, but this could not have happened to a more deserving bunch of folks. I hope it ruins many of them.
Having all your computers networked and linked to the internet is asking for trouble.
The people in charge of our security couldn’t run a store loss prevention department successfully.
There are no doubt plenty of smart dedicated good people in the government but the important policies are dictated by political hacks.
I’ve seen it in businesses time and time again;the person in charge supposedly doesn’t need to know or understand the processes that make the business work,just manage the people who do. And when it all blows up ,it is seldom the top managers’ fault but some lowly worker is blamed.
we are so screwed
Obama’s modernization and centralization of Information Technology in the Federal Government bites back.
What all you Shadenfreude out there don’t get is that this will rain down on everyone through terror strikes on US soil.
It’s time to put those tens of thousands of federal employees to work pushing paper again.. IRS and SS have already proved they are lousy at keeping things straight with computers (dead people getting refunds, dead people getting benefits etc.,) so let’s go back to paper records. I’m sure there are more than enough people to handle the job and keep our valuable intelligence assets safe. It will only get worse in this age of technology!
Live by the network, die by the network.
-— They don’t like it when THEY get spied on, but it’s perfectly ok when it’s the American public that’s getting spied on -—
Obama couldn’t be happier, hence his silence. He’s happy when America’s power is diminished. He was taught that our power has come as the result of imperialist oppression.
I'm afraid so....
Utterly transparent to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, ISIS, Pakistan...
Let me be clear. I fear the consequences of management stupidity just as much as you.We have been paying high-level officials to protect America and freedom,and instead they ordered the tools be focused on Americans.This will cost the lives of good people while the political class escapes paying for their stupidity.
It doesn’t bite “back.” It bites the country. Hussein is just fine with it. The number that got me was 14,000,000 federal employees. In a rational Constitutional government there should be no more than a few thousand plus military of those.
You are right and those in charge won’t do a thing because they are all blackmailed. Look at what happened to John Roberts.
Who knows if it was the Chinese. Maybe there’s revolution brewing in America. This is exactly the sort of information you need when you want to put pressure on those institutions that are enslave you and that control your life.
Now for all those that went online and fed the Obamacare exchange all their personal info...Do you feel safe now?
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