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NSA Security Breach
11/30/99
Mike Hudack
Editor-in-Chief
First Class Petty Officer Daniel King, a 40-year-old cryptologist working for the National Security Agency has admitted to downloading confidential NSA documents to CD-R and mailing it to the Russian embassy in Washington DC.
The espionage was detected during a routine polygraph test which the Naval officer failed. He then admitted to sending a package containing the CD-R to the Russian embassy. His statements have so far been rather contradictory.
Information Loss
The information sent to the Russians is in regards to the use of US submarines in SIGINT (signal intelligence) operations, particularly the tapping of Russian undersea communications cables.
The FBI has so far called losses "minimal." According to an FBI source consulted by MSNBC, it appears that the Russians may not have even received the intelligence.
How it Happened
Apparently one of the computers the naval officer was working on had a CD-ROM writer accessible. The "spy," who has so far been described as a disgruntled employee, then downloaded classified documents (the exact classification levels have not been released) and burned them onto a CD-R disc.
It is as of yet unclear why he had access to any removable media, much less how he removed it from the building. NSA employees are routinely searched both when entering and exiting the building, specifically for things like this.
The NSA security manual (which is publicly available on the Web) specifically warns against both of these problems. OSAll will be making the NSA security manual (labelled Official Use Only, but not Classified) available later today.
Criminal Charges
The FBI and Department of Justice are not currently planning to bring charges against King because of lack of evidence, according to Reuters. All evidence against King comes from the suspect himself, making proof beyond a reasonable doubt particularly difficult.
According to Reuters Naval Security Police (SP) have taken King into custody pending a possible court martial.
NSA has denied comment in this matter. |
