WASHINGTON (AP) – The Pentagon on Wednesday introduced plans to tighten safety for labeled data following the explosive leaks of lots of of intelligence paperwork that have been accessed via safety gaps at a Massachusetts Air National Guard base.
Airman 1st Class Jack Texeira, 21, is accused of leaking the extremely labeled army paperwork in a chatroom on Discord, a social media platform that began as a hangout for avid gamers.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a memo launched Wednesday, ordered the entire division’s secured rooms the place labeled data is saved and accessed to be introduced into compliance with intelligence group requirements for oversight and monitoring. The adjustments name for elevated ranges of bodily safety, extra controls to make sure paperwork aren’t improperly eliminated, and the project of top-secret management officers to observe customers.
Austin additionally stated the delicate compartmented data amenities, or SCIFs, should be monitored to forestall using digital units contained in the rooms. That effort would come with “appropriate electronic device detection systems and mitigation measures” contained in the safe areas, in response to the memo.
According to authorities, Teixeira, who enlisted within the Air National Guard in 2019, started sharing army secrets and techniques first by typing out labeled paperwork and later by eradicating labeled paperwork from the bottom and taking them residence to {photograph} them.
Teixeira labored as a a “cyber transport systems specialist,” basically an IT specialist accountable for army communications networks, which gave him broad entry to the army’s labeled computing networks.
The case highlighted the potential vulnerabilities the division faces as it really works to safeguard labeled data at army amenities throughout the globe which have various safety procedures and layers of safety, a senior protection official stated in a briefing with reporters on the brand new directives.
“There wasn’t a single point of failure,” stated the official, who spoke on situation of anonymity in accordance with Pentagon floor guidelines for the briefing.
Court filings in Teixeira’s case revealed that Air National Guard supervisors warned him at the least 3 times about improper entry to labeled data, however no additional motion to limit his clearance or entry was taken.
The official stated one of many issues the division present in its overview was that amenities that have been farther from headquarters had ambiguity on among the army’s labeled data insurance policies, corresponding to when a safety violation was required to be reported increased up the chain of command.
Teixeira pleaded not responsible final month to federal felony prices.
The gorgeous breach uncovered to the world unvarnished secret assessments of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, the capabilities and geopolitical pursuits of different nations and different nationwide safety points. It has led to sweeping safety critiques trying on the massive variety of customers who’ve entry to high secret data, who’s monitoring them, and whether or not or not they’ve a have to know.
Austin additionally directed the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency to develop methods to extra shortly flag and talk issues to native commanders about personnel, corresponding to by enhancing how “continuous vetting information” – any up to date experiences on legal information, credit score experiences or different indicators which might be tracked as a part of background checks – might be extra shortly shared to flag a possible safety danger.
An estimated 4 million individuals maintain U.S. safety clearances, in response to a 2017 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Of these, roughly 1.3 million are cleared to entry top-secret data.
The Defense Department has beforehand been criticized for delays vetting new staff for safety clearances and for over-classifying data. Officials have tried to steadiness these issues towards efforts to give you methods to higher shield the paperwork with out additional slowing down wanted entry to data, the official stated.
More current figures weren’t instantly accessible. But some lawmakers have lengthy wished to replace the U.S. system of classifying data and add safeguards for the way paperwork are saved and tracked.
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Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
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