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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSnowden impersonated NSA officials, sources say
By Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole and Robert Windrem
NBC News
Edward Snowden accessed some secret national security documents by assuming the electronic identities of top NSA officials, said intelligence sources.
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Snowden was a Honolulu-based employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, an NSA contractor. His job gave him system administrator privileges on the NSAs intranet, NSAnet. He reportedly used his privileges to download 20,000 documents.
The NSA still doesnt know exactly what Snowden took. But its forensic investigation has included trying to figure out which higher level officials Snowden impersonated online to access the most sensitive documents...According to one intelligence official, the NSA is restricting its research to a much smaller group of individuals with access to sensitive documents. Investigators are looking for discrepancies between the real world actions of an NSA employee and the online activities linked to that persons computer user profile. For example, if an employee was on vacation while the on-line version of the employee was downloading a classified document, it might indicate that someone assumed the employees identity.
The NSA has already identified several instances where Snowden borrowed someone elses user profile to access documents, said the official
- more -
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/29/20234171-snowden-impersonated-nsa-officials-sources-say
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)... naivete in regards to GreenWald.
Cause you know, there's no other way Obama couldv'e started this conversation about over reach other than starting the conversation about over reach.
SnowGlen = hero dammit!! /sarcasm <---cause this is needed around here
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)Snowden, apparently, deliberately did this. He didn't just "happen on" the documents he illegally copied and distributed.
I still doubt that he had the full access of those people to compartmented information.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)Inexcusable to not use good hardware cryptographic tokens for authentication.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)material. The authentication may not have been required for access to things like briefing presentations, etc., which are all we've seen from Snowden so far. Biometrics are probably also involved these days for compartmented materials. The technology exists, and the NSA is about the technology in a serious way. Iris scans, most likely, or at least fingerprint scans.
Snowden's access would probably only have allowed him to get into stuff that only required general access. That's my take on it, anyhow. If more sensitive information had been available to him, I think we would have seen something at that level already.
I don't know, but given how the NSA worked when I was there, way back in the 60s, access was tightly controlled on several levels, and it was almost impossible for you to have access to anything you weren't specifically cleared for. I can't imagine that it's less well controlled now.
Briefing documents weren't at a very high level, really.
Here's an NSA document on the use of biometric authentication. They do a lot of work in that area and provide information to others on such subjects:
http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/factsheets/I73-009R-007.pdf
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)For example, there appear to have been a very large number of people with access to the network that Manning harvested the documents from.
I also worked at a large organization, and I was somewhat amazed at the type and amount of information that I could access via the internal search engine. I was not a sys admin.
It appears that too much information now resides in networks with widespread access, poor compartmentalization, poor access controls, and inadequate logging.
If an organization doesn't want all employees to know that it is opening a location in country X, then it shouldn't put a management briefing with real estate transactions by country on a server that is crawled by the organization's search engine.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
ProSense
(116,464 posts)What is Russia's involvement?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023551970
BeyondGeography
(39,284 posts)What a weasel.
GeorgeGist
(25,294 posts)BeyondGeography
(39,284 posts)A Mark Leibovich "This Town" gravy train special. Quality of outcomes is a distant afterthought.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Racketeering.
Other such programs, designed to loot: War On Some Drugs, Prison Binge, Iraq.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)guess not LOL...
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Then why should we trust them with anything whatsoever?
This whole thing is astonishing.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)with a pinch of Kafka thrown in.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)while the IRS head was fired in days for something he had zero to do with?
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)with just a high school diploma. He just doesn't pass the smell test.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)Just pure conjecture.
Segami
(14,923 posts)dawg
(10,610 posts)Is that the point you were trying to make? Because that is the point you made.
LisaL
(44,962 posts)They collect a huge amount of information on private citizens, and can not protect this information.
randome
(34,845 posts)But apparently the personal data is well protected or else Snowden would have proof of his claims.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]
dawg
(10,610 posts)That's cute.
randome
(34,845 posts)No government agency -no corporation, for that matter- is one hundred percent secure. But if no one can get at the personal data, that's pretty strong evidence that it's well protected.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]
dawg
(10,610 posts)Commit right now!
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)DesMoinesDem
(1,569 posts)Oh, here it is
I wonder why you didn't include that paragraph.
whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)Good catch!
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)picked portions of articles once again. Welcome back! It was quiet without you.
DesMoinesDem
(1,569 posts)She has thrown up a few threads this week but isn't responding to the comments. When she is on the clock she responds to all the comments and always has to have the last word
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)It's when alot of pro's take a vacation.
dkf
(37,305 posts)They assume because the official was on vacation and someone accessed during that time that it was Snowden.
Funny.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Why is this supposed nobody with a high school diploma, working at key positions in the CIA and then the NSA and also seems to have spy abilities we only see in the movies?
dkf
(37,305 posts)And more Impressed.
Rex
(65,616 posts)and more like Jason Bourne, without the sniper skills. Or maybe WITH the sniper skills...seems nobody knows anything about him, except for the fact that he completely made the NSA look like the Keystone cops!
dkf
(37,305 posts)In a way I am a little nervous to have him in Russia. He really should be here, free and doing something that utilizes his talents. It's a waste.
jmowreader
(50,453 posts)Snowden is the guy who'd come in early on his second day, copy your Rolodex and price list, then quit and open a company doing what you do for ten percent less than you do it for.
randome
(34,845 posts)I still don't see evidence that Snowden was all that talented. He apparently didn't even understand what a secure FTP server was.
I think he got as far as he did because he came across as a demure 'good guy' and people gave him too much the benefit of a doubt.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]
Rex
(65,616 posts)And we are not just talking about any old password here.
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)role based access....then they just proved Snowboy is a liar! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)National security should not be outsourced particularly to private entities with such lax security standards. He should never have been able to access the data so freely and fraudulently. That doesn't bode well for him or the country.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)Thanks for bringing this to our attention!