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If millions of people know something, can it really be considered a secret anymore? That’s one of the questions at the heart of an ongoing debate in Washington about how much, and which, documents to classify in the age of Wikileaks, iPhones, and Edward Snowden.
That challenge, underscored by Mr. Snowden’s leaks of details exposing the National Security Agency’s top-secret surveillance programs, has given transparency experts new hope that they can help intelligence agencies take advantage of new thinking around classification to ensure that what needs to be secret stays secret.
“The calculation has changed recently, because a single individual, either out of negligence or malice or some other motive, can disclose whole libraries of records,” says Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy. “That’s something the government has not yet figured out how to deter or prevent.”
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @09:44PM (3 children)
Sure, you can keep secrets. But to do so you'll need to do what the Russians are doing:
Use paper, use well-tried protocols for protecting said papers, and keep shit off the internet. Restrict where you can carry electronic devices (hint, nowhere near secret papers).
Stop using digital media for real secrets.
Oh, and stop using contractors. Outsourcing your spying network (or its support functions) is just plain stupid, and a recipe for this sort of thing. Finally, compartmentalize data. Manning could never have leaked what he did to Wikileaks if he'd only had access to data relevant to his job.
But of course, all this requires work, costs money, and runs counter to the Republican notion that we should privatize government.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @09:54PM
Alternatively, use Windows 10 China govt edition [soylentnews.org].
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday May 26 2017, @10:21PM (1 child)
You forgot one step: Only classify what's absolutely necessary.
The sheer volume of crap being classified every single day is enemy number one. I'd take a bet that well over 90% does not need to be classified. Keep the secrets small, and they become a lot more manageable for safe storage and access.
(Score: 2) by migz on Saturday May 27 2017, @07:38AM
Perhaps the 90% needs to be classified, and kept secret, because they shouldn't have been doing that in the first place?
If you want to be a naughty boy, and not get caught. Join something secret and use your power to classify things to hide your crimes.
There probably needs to be more oversight.