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posted by takyon on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the reality-check dept.

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

Reality Winner pleads guilty to leaking NSA election hacking data

Reality Winner was expected to plead guilty to leaking NSA data, and she's done just that. The whistleblower has officially pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful retention and dissemination of national defense information. Sentencing will have to wait, but the felony carries a maximum penalty of 63 months (5.25 years) with up to three years of supervised release.

Winner faced the charge after giving The Intercept NSA documents that showed Russia's military intelligence wing, the GRU, attempting to hijack the computers of 122 local election officials ahead of the 2016 American vote. The NSA had determined that Russia wanted to collect information about election-related hardware and software in what could have been a precursor to manipulating the vote itself.

Previously: Feds Arrest NSA Contractor in Leak of Top Secret Russia Document
Reality Winner NSA Leak Details Revealed by Court Transcript


Original Submission

Related Stories

Reality Winner NSA Leak Details Revealed by Court Transcript 47 comments

Reality Winner, a former NSA contractor accused of leaking a document to The Intercept, has had her interrogation by the FBI detailed in a transcript filed by federal prosecutors:

A National Security Agency contractor accused of leaking a classified report on Russian hacking aimed at the 2016 election told FBI agents she smuggled the document out of a high security intelligence facility in her pantyhose. That and other details appear in a transcript federal prosecutors filed in court Wednesday detailing the interrogation of 25-year-old linguist Reality Winner by the FBI as they carried out a search warrant at her home in June.

[...] Winner appears to say she believed the contents of the report — which described Russian spearfishing cyberattacks aimed at U.S. voter registration databases — should be in the public debate. "I saw the article and was like, I don't understand why this isn't a thing," she said. "It made me very mad ... I guess I just didn't care about myself at that point. ... Yeah, I screwed up royally."

[...] The transcript hints at possible political motivations for the leak. Winner says she objected to her workplace tuning the TV to Fox News. She also had a signed photo of CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper, although she said the signature was fake. "I wasn't trying to be a Snowden or anything," Winner said, referring to NSA leaker Edward Snowden and his massive disclosures of details on U.S. government surveillance. "I guess it's just been hard at work because ... I've filed formal complaint about them having Fox News on, you know? Uh, at least, for God's sake, put Al Jazeera on, or a slideshow with people's pets. I've tried anything to get that changed." Despite Winner's statement to the FBI agents, prosecutors say that in a Facebook chat in March with her sister, Winner said she was on the "side" of both Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

On pages 4-5 of the transcript, the FBI agents discuss letting Reality Winner (RW) put groceries in her fridge and leash up her dog. Do they teach them that technique at the Academy?

Previously: Feds Arrest NSA Contractor in Leak of Top Secret Russia Document


Original Submission

NSA Leaker Who Mailed Doc Outlining Russian Hacking Gets 5 Years in Prison 35 comments

NSA leaker who mailed doc outlining Russian hacking gets 5 years in prison

Reality Winner, the intelligence contractor who leaked to The Intercept and was quickly caught in June 2017 thanks to microdot printing, was sentenced to 63 months in prison on Thursday. She had pleaded guilty on June 21 to a single count of unlawful retention and transmission of national defense information.

The information that Winner provided to The Intercept resulted in this June 5, 2017 news story: "Top-Secret NSA Report details Russian hacking effort days before 2016 election."

Previously: Feds Arrest NSA Contractor in Leak of Top Secret Russia Document
Reality Winner NSA Leak Details Revealed by Court Transcript
Reality Winner Pleads Guilty to Leaking NSA Election Hacking Data


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:15AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:15AM (#699587) Homepage Journal

    You say that like it's a bad thing.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:15AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:15AM (#699588)

    with Manning.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:17AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:17AM (#699589) Journal

      It's a little late for that. Unless there's a reverse pardon/commutation power I haven't heard about. Plus Chelsea Manning was in a military prison, not federal.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 1, Troll) by SanityCheck on Thursday June 28 2018, @04:42AM (2 children)

      by SanityCheck (5190) on Thursday June 28 2018, @04:42AM (#699663)

      She is an aspiring man. Soon the Left will embrace her, and run her for senate.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @08:13AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @08:13AM (#699719)

        What's troll about this? There is a good chance the Left will embrace her, and running for office is given.

        • (Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Friday June 29 2018, @09:08PM

          by SanityCheck (5190) on Friday June 29 2018, @09:08PM (#700353)

          The truth is a troll to certain segment of the population, as it creates an overwhelming emotional response.

    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 28 2018, @05:43AM (2 children)

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday June 28 2018, @05:43AM (#699679) Homepage Journal

      Have you seen her pictures?

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 2, Funny) by oldmac31310 on Thursday June 28 2018, @04:19PM (1 child)

        by oldmac31310 (4521) on Thursday June 28 2018, @04:19PM (#699870)

        She won reality, apparently.

        • (Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Friday June 29 2018, @09:16PM

          by SanityCheck (5190) on Friday June 29 2018, @09:16PM (#700360)

          Then we find out "Reality" is actually her middle name, her first name is "Not".

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:30AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:30AM (#699595)

    Now that she has been convicted should she change her name from "Reality Winner" to "Real Loser"? Or maybe "Guilty As Charged"?

    • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:08AM (6 children)

      by MostCynical (2589) on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:08AM (#699614) Journal

      In reality, she did win: time in a cell, notoriety, and an entry in spy guidebooks under 'opsec fails: case studies'

      --
      "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Thursday June 28 2018, @04:50AM (5 children)

        by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 28 2018, @04:50AM (#699665) Journal

        Part of the 'opsec fail' you go on about was her relying on The Intercept. She was neither the first nor the last that publication has hung out to dry. Omidyar bought Greenwald and with him the cache of Snowden documents and put them on ice. He used that for unearned credibility to attract and entrap other whistleblowers and act on his long standing his grudge against Wikileaks [soylentnews.org].

        --
        Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
        • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 28 2018, @08:48AM (3 children)

          by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday June 28 2018, @08:48AM (#699727) Homepage Journal

          I've seen more than one online rag that had a hidden service to which one may submit anonymous tips

          --
          Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by canopic jug on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:08PM (2 children)

            by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:08PM (#699777) Journal

            This wasn't enough in her case. They published the more or less raw documents which allowed the investigators to figure out who had printed them. If The Intercept wanted to protect her, one of the things they would have done would have been to re-key the documents prior to publishing and even then only publishing excerpts. This was all common knowledge even before Snowden so there's no excuse they can claim for doing it like they did except that they wanted to make sure she was identified quickly.

            --
            Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday June 29 2018, @01:00AM

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday June 29 2018, @01:00AM (#700049) Journal

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Winner#Intelligence_report_leak_and_arrest [wikipedia.org]

          The Intercept had contacted the NSA on May 30 and sent copies of the documents in order to confirm their veracity. The NSA notified the FBI of the situation on June 1. The FBI realized the documents had been printed out because the PDF copies sent by The Intercept "appeared to be folded and/or creased, suggesting they had been printed and hand-carried out of a secured space". Next, the NSA did an internal audit, confirming that Winner was one of six workers who had accessed the particular documents on its classified system, but only Winner's computer had been in contact with The Intercept using a personal email account. On June 3, the FBI obtained a warrant to search Winner's electronic devices, and she was arrested.

          Even if The Intercept hadn't sent NSA the copies or published the full docs, her OPSEC was absolutely terrible and she would have been caught anyway.

          The tech illiterate shouldn't be leaking, but maybe no NSA employee who hasn't also broken the internal security system should be leaking. She was on a very short list of suspects just for accessing the document.

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:37AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:37AM (#699623)

      "Reality Leaker"? "Reality Whistleblower!" ? Or just, "Reality Patriot". Abolish ICE!

  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:06AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:06AM (#699613)

    On February 11, 2017, just two days before she began employment as an NSA contractor, she wrote that "the most dangerous entry to this country was the orange fascist we let into the White House” on her Twitter account.[22] She described President Donald Trump as "a soulless ginger orangutan" on her Facebook page.[23][24]

    Lets see if the feels so high and mighty about "The Resistance" after a few months in prison.

  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 28 2018, @06:43AM (1 child)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday June 28 2018, @06:43AM (#699695) Homepage Journal

    I'm in ur App Store, getting my firmware update on.

    My iFone 7 came preinstalled with iOS 10.0.1 which was already a major release out of date.

    When I find a particular major minor and patch level version of _every_ manner of binary I always stick with it even in the face of well known exploits because thirty years of hard experience yields the insight that "Quality is job one point oh point one".

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
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