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Comment by fnordfnordfnord | Hacker News Reader

* Our leaker is a person with a Twitter timeline that makes you wonder how she maintained her Secret clearance. She retweets @Snowden, yet was hired at Pluribus in Feb. of this year, days after doing so.

* The story is a huge black eye for the Intercept, makes it look like they are very inept.

* The leak is not really substantial, mostly analyst notes about an ongoing thing that's been talked up in the press quite a bit.

* The DocuColor thing is ancient as well: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/20/outlaw_printer_dots...

Maybe my tinfoil hat is on too tight, but this just has a funny odor to it. One might speculate that this is a calculated leak intended to discredit The Intercept, sow fear in the minds of potential leakers?.

If the comments on other forums are anything to judge by, there are at least two groups of paid astroturfers battling it out today.

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She had top secret clearance prior to being hired by Pluribus in February. She was formerly in the Air Force and apparently specialized in Middle Eastern languages. Apparently, top secret clearance is renewed every 5 years [0], so she may have had carte blanche to do what she wanted for a few years.

[0] http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs...

I don't know how that works, but I'd be surprised if there were not a sort-of abbreviated check?

Why would there be? Pluribus doesn't issue security clearances, the customer agency (in this case the NSA) does. It would be up to the NSA to do any additional background checks/vetting/polygraphs regarding security clearance for any contractors. Working for a contractor/switching jobs is hardly suspicious activity, so the NSA would have no reason to investigate her. Likewise Pluribus had no reason to be suspicious, so the most they'd do beyond the standard corporate background check is call up the NSA to confirm her clearance was active. At the end of the day even the NSA doesn't have the resources to be constantly vetting 100,000+ employees and contractors.

How about applying machine learning towards vetting social media wrt people with TS and >TS clearance?

I have great name for this start-up, Minority Report...or maybe just boring old Palentir.

I was about to say, Palantir's been done.

Lots of people with TS clearances hate Trump, but most aren't going to ruin their lives just because the president is an asshole. You'd end up ruining a lot of careers and chances are you'd never stop a single leak.

No, a contractor like Pluribus wouldn't issue the clearance, but they'd surely verify that the clearance exists and is valid. That seems like a good time to generate a cursory once over of the applicant's clearance. OTOH, since the IC is in the growth hacking phase these days maybe they don't want to do anything to slow down the money train.

There are things that can easily be detected and cause you to have issues with a clearance. For example, if you get arrested or have other significant legal issues, someone will probably find out. Also, if you stop paying your bills long enough to have severe credit issues, someone will likely find out about that too.

For social media activity, someone would likely have to report you for anyone to take action.

I for one think its pretty reasonable, it sucks working for the government enough already, if we put people under 24x7 surveillance just for trying to serve their country they will go from having very few talented/ethical people working for them to absolutely none.

That was exactly Julian Assange's original thesis:

----

"The non linear effects of leaks on unjust systems of governance

[...]

The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive "secrecy tax") and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption."

https://web.archive.org/web/20071020051936id_/http://iq.org:...

https://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf

People with security clearances are under 24/7 surveillance. They sign away their 4th amendment rights by agreeing to the terms of EO12333 and the gov can do anything as part of its investigation process. Sort of foolish for anyone with TS to be blabbing about such things on social media but you know, kids these days.

Both the Intercept and the Washington post have one thing in common, Bezos who received $600 million contract from the CIA:"Meanwhile, a petition campaign was launched related to news that Amazon, under the Post’s new owner, Jeff Bezos, recently secured a $600 million contract from the CIA. That’s at least twice what Bezos paid for the Post this year. Bezos recently disclosed that the company’s Web-services business is building a “private cloud” for the CIA to use for its data needs.

Critics charge that, at a minimum, the Post needs to disclose its CIA link whenever it reports on the agency. Over 15,000 have signed the petition this week hosted by RootsAction." http://www.hangthebankers.com/washington-post-owner-receives...

I've just noticed that the Intercept journalist who burned Winner is the same one who burned Kiriakou some years ago.

Feeding information to the enemy is not a new tactic either in the form of misinformation to mislead or of mountweasels to flush out moles. Perhaps she did not expect them to publish originals. They do seem inept. But then their warez aren't all over the internet and I cannot see it doing anything other than educating potential leakers as to the necessity to at least think about opsec. So if that was NSA's game then that too is inept. It stinks though.

Both the Intercept and the Washington post has one thing in common,Bezos who received $600 million contract from the CIA:"Meanwhile, a petition campaign was launched related to news that Amazon, under the Post’s new owner, Jeff Bezos, recently secured a $600 million contract from the CIA. That’s at least twice what Bezos paid for the Post this year. Bezos recently disclosed that the company’s Web-services business is building a “private cloud” for the CIA to use for its data needs.

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