Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @02:20AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 08 2017, @02:20AM (#522391)

    The first job of an intelligence agency is keeping secrets

    No, their first job is to respect and protect the US Constitution. And then they have a duty to The People to inform them of any government wrongdoing. If that means whistleblowing, then so be it. At any rate, secrecy should not be their top priority.

  • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Thursday June 08 2017, @03:39AM

    by jmorris (4844) on Thursday June 08 2017, @03:39AM (#522421)

    The people at the top, not those at the working levels. The reason for this is they are expected to assume they DO NOT KNOW enough to have an opinion. The whole spy game is about compartmentalization, need to know, lots of disinformation, double agents, dirty tricks and spending a lot of time in legally gray areas. This is why spies are absolutely essential to any nation state but are terrifyingly dangerous, especially if not kept in constant check by those few at the top who can see the whole picture and the leaders who direct the spymasters.

    If some low level minion like this space cadet accidentally sees 'juicy' intel their first assumption should be it is another loyalty test and thus obey the chain of command and the rules as issued to them. Absolutely any other default behavior in your low level minions is toxic. And from an opsec standpoint, either failing to know this crazy bitch was part of "The Resistance" or knowing and allowing her to continue working should get those responsible purged for incompetence.