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White House Kicks Infosec Team to Curb in IT Office Shakeup

posted by martyb on Friday October 25 2019, @07:44AM   
from the buttery-males dept.

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for soylent_green.

White House kicks infosec team to curb in IT office shakeup

An internal White House memo published today by Axios reveals that recent changes to the information operations and security organizations there have left the security team in tumult, with many members headed for the door. And the chief of the White House's computer network defense branch—who wrote the memo after submitting his resignation—warned that the White House was likely headed toward another network compromise and theft of data.

The White House Office of the Chief Information Security Officer was set up after the 2014 breach of an unclassified White House network by Russian intelligence—a breach discovered by a friendly foreign government. But in a July reorganization, the OCISO was dissolved and its duties placed under the White House Office of the Chief Information Officer, led by CIO Ben Pauwels and Director of White House IT Roger L. Stone. Stone was pulled from the ranks of the National Security Council where he was deputy senior director for resilience policy. (Stone is not related to indicted Republican political consultant Roger J. Stone.)

[...] "It is my express opinion that the remaining incumbent OCISO staff is being systematically targeted for removal from the Office of Administration," departing White House network defense branch chief Dimitrios Vastakis wrote in the memo. The security team had seen incentive pay revoked, scope of duties cut, and access to systems and facilities reduced, Vastakis noted. Staffers' "positions with strategic and tactical decision making authorities" had also been revoked. "In addition, habitually being hostile to incumbent OCISO staff has become a staple tactic for the new leadership... it has forced the majority of [senior civil servant] OCISO staff to resign."

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Original Submission

• Re:Translation (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @12:19AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @12:19AM (#911928)

  And there's no evidence that I've encountered that she sent anything classified over that server, or received anything more than confidential (and I'm not sure about that).

  Where did you look? Because this is what Comey announced in 2016:

  Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

  For example, seven e-mail chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending e-mails about those matters and receiving e-mails from others about the same matters. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation. In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U.S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on e-mail (that is, excluding the later “up-classified” e-mails).

  https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system [fbi.gov]

  He originally called it "grossly negligent", but then changed the wording because that meant it was illegal:

  Comey’s initial draft statement, which he shared with
  FBI senior leadership on May 2, criticized Clinton’s
  handling of classified information as “grossly negligent,”
  but concluded that “no reasonable prosecutor” would
  bring a case based on the facts developed in the
  Midyear investigation. Over the course of the next 2
  months, Comey’s draft statement underwent various
  language changes, including the following:

  The description of Clinton’s handling of
  classified information was changed from
  “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless;”

  A statement that the sheer volume of
  information classified as Secret supported an
  inference of gross negligence was removed and
  replaced with a statement that the classified
  information they discovered was “especially
  concerning because all of these emails were
  housed on servers not supported by full-time
  staff”;

  A statement that the FBI assessed that it was
  “reasonably likely” that hostile actors gained
  access to Clinton’s private email server was
  changed to “possible.” The statement also
  acknowledged that the FBI investigation and its
  forensic analysis did not find evidence that
  Clinton’s email server systems were
  compromised; and

  A paragraph summarizing the factors that led
  the FBI to assess that it was possible that
  hostile actors accessed Clinton’s server was
  added, and at one point referenced Clinton’s
  use of her private email for an exchange with
  then President Obama while in the territory of a
  foreign adversary. This reference later was
  changed to “another senior government
  official,” and ultimately was omitted.

  Each version of the statement criticized Clinton’s
  handling of classified information. Comey told us that
  he included criticism of former Secretary Clinton’s
  uncharged conduct because “unusual transparency...was
  necessary for an unprecedented situation,” and that
  such transparency “was the best chance we had of
  having the American people have confidence that the
  justice system works[.]”

  https://www.justice.gov/file/1071991/download [justice.gov]

  So obviously you are unfamiliar with any of the basic facts of this situation. I would recommend reading that OIG report in full. Lots of hints about stuff we have yet to see come to light in there.

  Parent