Snowden smuggled out THOUSANDS of documents on a thumb drive.

[pnwmom]

But he thinks he's not like Bradley Manning because Snowden only leaked selectively.

Right. What's he going to do with the rest of the documents that he hasn't leaked yet? Use them to extort concessions from the US? Sell them to China? What's this unemployed computer guy going to do?

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/snowden-thumb-drive/

The dreaded thumb drive has struck the Defense Department again as word comes that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden smuggled out thousands of classified documents on one of the portable devices, despite the military’s efforts to ban them.

Investigators also know how many documents Snowden downloaded from the NSA network and what server he took them from, according to the Los Angeles Times, quoting an unnamed official.

Officials have not indicated how many documents Snowden swiped, but the Guardian reported this week that Snowden left Hawaii with four laptops that “enabled him to gain access to some of the US government’s most highly-classified secrets.”

Snowden was a systems administrator, contracted out to the NSA by Booz Allan Hamilton. He worked at the NSA’s facility in Hawaii just four weeks before he asked for a leave of absence without pay, then absconded with the documents he’d siphoned from the NSA network on the thumb drive and flew to Hong Kong, where he’s been since May 20.

SNIP

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-snowden-nsa-secrets-thumb-drive-20130613,0,791040.story

Officials said they still don’t know how Snowden got access to an order marked “Top Secret” from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or a highly-classified directive from President Obama authorizing a military target list for cyber attacks. Neither document would be widely shared, or normally available to a low-level NSA employee.

[Bonobo]

1. How ironic

that he should have the charge of secretly stealing data leveled against him by the people who secretly stole the data of tens of millions of people.

[pnwmom]

4. The Patriot Act was passed in public, not secretly, and it has never been a secret

that unidentified phone numbers were being collected.

[Bonobo]

7. "unidentified phone numbers"

It was a hell of a lot more than that. And yes, in secret. Much of most of it is still secret.

[pnwmom]

34. No, it wasn't. Just phone numbers and number of minutes.

If the government wanted more information, such as a wiretap, they'd have to go to the judge with probable cause and get a warrant.

And this collection of phone numbers was debated in public when the Patriot Act was passed, which you'd know if you'd been paying attention. It was no secret.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. My my denial much? Most of the USPA is enacted IN SECRET

Most hearings, when held are cosed door.

[frylock]

31. we don't cotton to USAPATRIOT around here..

using that to rationalize this program is fucking ludicrous.

[pnwmom]

37. I'm not trying to justify the Patriot Act. I'm saying that there was plenty of debate

when it passed and everyone knew it involved collecting phone numbers. That wasn't a secret.

The only part of what Snowden said about this that was "news" turned out to be false. The Prism program collects data from foreign targets, not U.S.

[ohheckyeah]

33. LOL

Exactly. They want us to trust them to use the data legally and in a responsible manner but can't even protect the friggin' information from being leaked. Trust them? Not in this lifetime.

[randome]

2. Not entirely the NSA's fault. Snowden was sneaky.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. I'd say he sacrificed enough for his country, then.

[pinboy3niner]

35. Awethumb

[Blue Owl]

61. LOL -- a thumb drive up his ass

[geek tragedy]

3. They're lucky he wasn't recruited by Iran or Al Qaeda.

What kind of lax security do they have?

[pnwmom]

6. He was a systems administrator and, as such, knew about the systems in place

that were supposed to protect against unauthorized downloads.

I know nothing about computers but this seems like an extremely hard problem to solve -- everything seems to hinge on the honesty of the tech people.

[Aerows]

16. "I know nothing about computers"

Well that much is clear. This is about as easy to solve as a script and locking down the BIOS.

[CakeGrrl]

28. How about a civil response to your comment?

This exposes his employer as having very lax security. They should know or should track who has the privileges of copying data to external media to thumb drives, but should rethink how or why they allow that capability. Seems pretty clear that he's abused his sys admin privileges at minimum.

They should at least have logged what was copied from his computer to the thumb drive.

I suspect he'll go down as a common data thief / trafficker of government documents rather than the hunted martyr.

[Aerows]

30. Lax security

Describes it all.

[Aerows]

19. Exactly

This is dumb as stumps levels of technology and just as easy to prevent from happening.

[NightWatcher]

5. Um, thumb drives are forbidden on sensitive computers

None that I had access to even had USB sockets on them. I wonder what/how he figured that out.

[FarCenter]

10. Booz probably used regular PCs

Normally, you'd install software to disable the USB ports for almost all employees, but a sysadmin would have the ability to turn them back on.

[railsback]

11. This is the private sector you're talking about

The ones everyone here is trusting with their data.

[NightWatcher]

12. I worked for a contractor and there were no USB sockets on mine

This guy just keeps looking like a criminal.

[Aerows]

17. It's irrelevant if there are USB ports or not

conscientious administrators lock them down both via hardware and via OS.

[HipChick]

20. Most of them are disabled..so he took 4 laptops too

does that classify as stealing govt. equipment yet?

[Aerows]

21. I said conscientious administrators

not haphazard fools.

[pnwmom]

36. But he was an administrator. So was he supposed to protect the system from himself?

How is that supposed to work?

Clearly, the system failed. But that doesn't let him off the hook. He still stole documents. The fact that they made it too easy for him to do so doesn't mitigate his admitted crime.

[Aerows]

38. It works excellently when people have a clue

I don't work for Booz Allen. Maybe I should. It is clearly a circus there.

[Nay]

64. I wondered about that, too. And you usually have no printers available, either. So how come

contractors get to flout all the normal and expected security measures? This thing is so effed up.

[Aerows]

26. And even if they are there

they are inaccessible if you have a halfway decent admin. I swear, Booz Allen sounds like Cletus the slack-jawed yokel of security firms.

"Some folk'll never lose a toe"
"But some folk'll"

[Cali_Democrat]

8. This information is now going to China.

The new DU hero turned out to be a Chinese agent (likely paid) with a fake resume.

[FSogol]

13. Going? It is already there.

[Cali_Democrat]

14. True. n/t

[Downwinder]

23. A Chinese agent with a Top Secret clearance inside

the U.S. spook house? Heads going to roll over this?

[Cali_Democrat]

24. They better roll

It's totally unacceptable.

[Whisp]

15. trivial! compared to acceptance of egg on face

sis boom bah, China! yah, that's the ticket.

yah, Eddie! we will cheer even louder if some of the info you have results in a major attack in some large U.S. city! yah! you go, man! There are more people dieing from slipping on dog shit than terror attacks so who the hell cares about numbers. Numbers, Schmumbers!

[ljm2002]

47. If he were a paid Chinese agent...

...it is highly unlikely that he would have gone public like he did.

[railsback]

9. Extortion

Demanding a get-a-way car and cash for his silence.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Well, we've been assured that the spying done on American people is harmless and inconsequential.

OTOH, NSA might be worried about us finding out who else they've been spying on.

[DevonRex]

25. Think! He's threatening the lives of CIA agents in China.

That was the other part he claimed to know - the names of operatives and station chiefs.

[OilemFirchen]

27. Why would he care?

[DevonRex]

39. This is his pretend bargaining chip for those

pretend deadly agents who he warned the Washington Post reporter about. He's nothing but a poser trying to act smarter than he is, more important than he is.

He might have managed to steal a few things. But he's still a loser.

[OilemFirchen]

43. Got that.

But I meant why would Tierra_y_Libertad care?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

45. Sounds like a helluva good reason to get the CIA out of China.

And, everywhere else.

[DevonRex]

46. He can't know

Even close to what he claimed. Impossible. But he might have managed to learn a couple. But personally I'd play the game of chicken out and let the agents handle themselves. They've known since he popped up in HK and said what he did about identities.

[Aerows]

32. All I have to say

is that if you are upset that data got leaked look at who is in charge of the data.

[DevonRex]

40. I'm really concerned about who let him in to begin with.

That bothers me. Never should have happened. Somebody vouched for him. Or there's a background investigator out there who's doing a lot of damage.

[Aerows]

41. Makes you wonder

doesn't it?

[DevonRex]

44. Yep.

I'm not as worried about the system stuff because I know 2 things. One is that corporations have all this anyway, and unencrypted. I know they cannot be trusted.

Next, I know the security system isn't as he described it. That would be like a single sign-on system and it's ludicrous on its face. One guy being able to rewrite code from one location and bring down the entire intelligence network. No other humans involved, no other verification but computer code, passwords, etc?

Not only no but I'm still giggling.

[Aerows]

48. Actually, you would be surprised

do you use a salt for your password, and modify it based upon where you log in? If not, there are probably a few locations that can access your data at will. Using the same password is pretty much a recipe for your data getting accessed. Just food for thought.

[Aerows]

49. Hope that didn't horrify anyone

but it's the truth. Logs reveal you passwords, and if you use the same one over and over without variation, it's simple to hack. Use a salt. That way you can remember it, but it's a variation.

[DevonRex]

50. No

I'm talking about levels in which an actual physical presence is required to be verified at different stages, in different ways. When you're talking about agencies of analysts and cryptographers and programmers, other methods are used, especially when you're talking about rewriting code to make the system disappear completely. And it wouldn't be just one person, either.

That's why I giggled at him.

[Aerows]

52. Physical Access is always the

boondoggle.

[Whisp]

55. 'somebody vouched for him'

yep, most likely there are others involved in a much higher position than Edward. Someone on the inside may have paved the way.

Remember than Glen knew Ed before Ed started working there. There are at least 3 people involved in all this at that level.

[Aerows]

56. It wouldn't surprise me

There must be a couple of others involved at this clearance level.

[DevonRex]

62. I think he was recruited for

something like this. People with resentment and a need to prove they're smarter than everybody else (especially the mean government they resent for not letting them be in the Green Berets) are low hanging fruit.

[pnwmom]

51. I bet the problem is that the people in charge have a minimal understanding of computers

so they just have to trust that the computer people working for them aren't working for the Chinese. Or anybody else.

[Aerows]

53. It wouldn't suprise me

You have some pure idiots in charge of hiring. I say that without malice, it's just the truth.

[Aerows]

54. Are you in Human Resources and about to

get nuclear on me for that observation?

[FarCenter]

58. At the very top, you have military officers. They are very good at things they can see.

Something like software and networking -- not so much.

I worked on a project managed by a retired Navy Captain -- It was all about how many "resources" do you have on this or that task. They can count people, severs, routers, etc., but they have very little understanding of what the people do or how the software is designed.

It was that way longer ago in commercial work, when minicomputers were new, and projects were run by electrical engineers who had never programmed computers.

[BeyondGeography]

42. Sounds like he may have had help

[Aerows]

57. He needed some help

But it doesn't excuse the lax security at his firm. They are going to own that forever.

[Aerows]

59. K&R

anyone doubt it?

[JI7]

60. did he take it with him to Hong Kong ?

even if he didn't want chinese authorities to see it could he prevent them from seeing it if they are able to get it from him ?

[pnwmom]

65. That's what the reports say. Other than hiding it, I don't know how he could prevent

them from seeing it.

[The Straight Story]

63. So our intelligence agencies cannot even watch people with access to their own information

and they wonder why we find things worrisome?

[morningfog]

66. Recommend! Release it all!

[hrmjustin]

67. This is not good at all! This guy is not trustworthy at all.

[NCTraveler]

68. This is really proof...

that the state is extremely competent when securing stored information.

[sibelian]

69. I wonder if he's walked off with my half finished novel?

I am going to be SO FUCKING DISPLEASED if some plagiaristic Asian bastard brings out a sci fi epic featuring telepathic dolphins. IT WAS MY IDEA FIRST.

It's going to happen, isn't it?

BASTARDS.