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posted by n1 on Wednesday June 07 2017, @05:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the bucket-full-of-holes dept.

Barely an hour after a news organization published an article about a Top Secret National Security Agency document on Russian hacking, the Justice Department announced charges against a 25-year-old government contractor who a senior federal official says was the leaker of the document.

The May 5, 2017 intelligence document published by The Intercept, an online news organization, describes new details about Russian efforts to hack voting systems in the U.S a week prior to the 2016 presidential election. While the document doesn't say the hacking changed any votes, it "raises the possibility that Russian hacking may have breached at least some elements of the voting system, with disconcertingly uncertain results."

Even as the document was ricocheting around Washington, the Justice Department announced that a criminal complaint was filed in the Southern District of Georgia charging Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a federal contractor, with removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet.

Source: NBC News

Once investigative efforts identified Winner as a suspect, the FBI obtained and executed a search warrant at her residence. According to the complaint, Winner agreed to talk with agents during the execution of the warrant. During that conversation, Winner admitted intentionally identifying and printing the classified intelligence reporting at issue despite not having a "need to know," and with knowledge that the intelligence reporting was classified. Winner further admitted removing the classified intelligence reporting from her office space, retaining it, and mailing it from Augusta, Georgia, to the news outlet, which she knew was not authorized to receive or possess the documents.

Source: Department of Justice

While the document provides a rare window into the NSA's understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying "raw" intelligence on which the analysis is based. A U.S. intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.

Source: The Intercept

How The Intercept Outed Reality Winner

Julian Assange: Alleged NSA leaker 'must be supported'

Bad tradecraft: How the Intercept may have outed its own leaker

WikiLeaks tweet #1: "Suspected Intercept reporter gave US government NSA whistleblower Reality Leigh Winner's post code, printout and her report number" and tweet #2: "WikiLeaks issues a US$10,000 reward for information leading to the public exposure & termination of this 'reporter'".


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Wednesday June 07 2017, @06:51AM (16 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday June 07 2017, @06:51AM (#521782) Journal

    She should have feed the documents to a offline OCR process. That should remove most of this stuff. However that the Intercept.. didn't intercept this leak is kind of embarrassing.

    Btw, how can folding or creasing indicate a secured space?

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday June 07 2017, @07:13AM (12 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday June 07 2017, @07:13AM (#521790) Journal

    Btw, how can folding or creasing indicate a secured space?

    suggesting they had been printed and carried out of a secured space

    These kinds of places are not supposed to allow you to say, plug a USB flash drive into the computer, copy the files, and walk out with them. But sending the file to the work printer queue and then smuggling the printed pages out of the building is definitely possible, just ill-advised.

    (I think Manning got around anti-USB restrictions by burning files to a CD, but I'll have to double check that.)

    The crease/etc. indicated that it was printed at the secure location and probably scanned later at home in order to create a digital file that could be sent to The Intercept. As opposed to the other scenario of the NSA being hacked from the outside or something, e.g. The Shadow Brokers (although I heard it was debatable whether they actually hacked the NSA).

    If Reality Winner did want to leak some docs, a better way could have been to transcribe the document by hand without printing anything, and then type that up back at home and find a secure channel (Tor hidden service or whatever) to send it to The Intercept from coffee shop/etc. Wi-Fi. And do it some weeks after having come into contact with the docs, not immediately after having received them in an email or however that happened. Then if she appeared on a short list of potential leakers... practice feigning ignorance and beating the polygraph beforehand.

    And even that method would be defeated if the govt. ever gets the bright idea to send unique docs with a few words changed to every recipient. I don't know if that's likely to happen, but if they do it another leaker could get their life fucked up.

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    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday June 07 2017, @07:30AM (8 children)

      by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday June 07 2017, @07:30AM (#521797) Journal

      Photographing the screen using a micro camera might be an idea?

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday June 07 2017, @07:50AM

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday June 07 2017, @07:50AM (#521800) Journal

        It's still a device, and suspicious if found.

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      • (Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday June 07 2017, @11:23AM (6 children)

        by looorg (578) on Wednesday June 07 2017, @11:23AM (#521841)

        Photographing the screen using a micro camera might be an idea?

        She clearly wasn't some kind of female James Bond. Plus if said camera was found passing thru security that would have been suspicious as hell.

        Apparently she at least knew how screwed she was when the FBI came a knockin' on her door that she admitted it straight away, which is somewhat refreshing. So one can only assume this will be a simple and fast slam dunk trial followed by a long prison sentence.

        Reality Leigh Winner

        That has got to be some kind of name change gag, her parents can't have been that clueless.

        WikiLeaks issues a US$10,000 reward for information leading to the public exposure & termination of this 'reporter'

        Have they ever paid out any money? They seem to be offering rewards for various things all the time but one never hears about them actually paying any rewards.

        • (Score: 1) by oakgrove on Wednesday June 07 2017, @11:42AM (3 children)

          by oakgrove (5864) on Wednesday June 07 2017, @11:42AM (#521845)

          Reality Leigh Winner

          That has got to be some kind of name change gag, her parents can't have been that clueless.

          This silliness is indeed self-imposed.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @03:32PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @03:32PM (#521971)

            > This silliness is indeed self-imposed.

            Citation?

            Her mother's last name [cnn.com] is "Winner-Davis" - Davis is her stepfather's last name.

            So Reality Leigh Winner is likely her given name.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @05:31PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @05:31PM (#522083)

              yes, and i can see her hippy parents discussing/creating the name now...i'm sure a baby is a heavy dose indeed.

            • (Score: 1) by oakgrove on Saturday June 10 2017, @06:55AM

              by oakgrove (5864) on Saturday June 10 2017, @06:55AM (#523421)

              She changed her first name from Sara to Reality.
              >citation
              Look it up yourself if you don't believe me.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday June 07 2017, @08:51PM

          by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday June 07 2017, @08:51PM (#522210)

          Reality Leigh Winner
          That has got to be some kind of name change gag, her parents can't have been that clueless.

          Wrong. People around that age have all kinds of weird and idiotic names these days. I've heard tons of them. There's absolutely something wrong with a large fraction of Americans in the 45-60yo age range (the age the 20-somethings' parents, the parents of the Millennials, would be now), as these are the people who picked these stupid names.

          People keep deriding the Millennials for all kinds of things, but what they fail to realize is that the fault really lies with their parents for doing a lousy job of raising them and providing them a good society to live in.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @11:35PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @11:35PM (#522311)

          ... is there is less incentive to moderate if you know you get 25 yrs whether it is one document or a disk drive of them.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday June 07 2017, @12:09PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 07 2017, @12:09PM (#521851) Journal

      And even that method would be defeated if the govt. ever gets the bright idea to send unique docs with a few words changed to every recipient.

      Which has been a standard trick in the bag for a long time (at least since the Second World War). If you leak a lot over time to a reporter who quotes from the documents, you will get caught.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @03:33PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @03:33PM (#522620)

      (I think Manning got around anti-USB restrictions by burning files to a CD, but I'll have to double check that.)

      AFAIK the anti-USB policies came about because of Manning's use of a flash drive to walk files.

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @01:42PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @01:42PM (#521885)

    She was not very smart. I don't need a degree in clinical psychology to diagnose a narcissistic personality disorder in this one either. The fact idiots like this get security clearance is ridiculous. Her online presence is pure retard-level vitriol. The left propaganda has rotted another brain, and ruined what could have been a productive life.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @08:08PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @08:08PM (#522181)

      I don't need a degree in clinical psychology to diagnose a narcissistic personality disorder in this one either. The fact idiots like this get security clearance is ridiculous.

      Funny, I thought you were referring to someone with less "Reality" in their name, and personality, like The Donald.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @10:03AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @10:03AM (#522503)

        Await the virtualDonaldTriumph! ;-)