Edward Snowden may be the most famous whistleblower of the NSA's actions for leaking classified government files, but the agency's associate Harold Martin is the one who pulled off the biggest theft of classified information in NSA history. USA.
Martin, 51, was arrested during an FBI raid on his home in late August. He is accused of stealing dozens of computers and thousands of documents. The NSA partner has been collecting more than 50 terabytes (50.000 gigabytes) of data from government computers for more than two decades. So although his charges were initially misdemeanors they quickly changed to espionage charges - in part because of the sheer volume of data he stole.
At the moment no one knows how the authorities got to Martin, and of course the biggest question is how he was able to steal so much data - and go unnoticed - for so long.
Former NSA employees who spoke anonymously said Martin is likely to steal the files just by going through the front door.
“Her service better safety"They carry out spot checks on bags and wallets of people leaving the service, but no one checks what's in the pockets," said one former employee, who spent nearly 30 years in the service in various posts before leaving in the last decade.
"Anything that could fit in a pocket and go unnoticed," the former NSA official continued.
A second employee, who left the office at about the same time, agreed.
"Practically, it is not possible to control all employees. Think about Ft. Meade, said the former employee, hinting at how bad the security system is. About 30.000 employees work at NSA headquarters in Ft. Maryland Meade. It would take hours to check every person leaving the building.
A second former employee reported that the vast majority of employees go through extensive interviews before working, and so there is an inherent loyalty to the service staff. James Clapper, director of the National Intelligence Service, said 2014 that there were no "mousetraps" to catch another Snowden, because the agency's security "is based on personal trust."
The indictment does not say exactly how Martin stole the data from NSA computers and servers, as these systems (work) are a seven-secret secret to national security.
When asked, the former employees reported:
"With base what he got, it looks like [Martin] must have used USB drives,” said the first employee. The size of USB storage has grown over the past two decades, and according to the evidence Martin's theft was a painstakingly slow process.
The second official said it would not be difficult to steal the data, noting that the NSA has "some of the best hackers on earth."
There are many parallels with the Snowden case, mainly because it has not yet been known how he managed to extract the data from the NSA systems.
But, according to one report, Snowden needed "a little drive and a willingness to exploit a black hole in an antiquated security system." A source said at the time that the NSA in 2013 was “stuck on his technology 2003. "
"I'm pretty sure he could find a way to do it without being detected," the former employee said, without elaborating, adding that the systems would most likely not be able to stop the leak of "specialized confidential information."
In the indictment, Martin appears to have boasted in a letter found by the FBI that he had "seen more or less all the tech secrets of COMPUSEC [the NSA]."
He said the NSA systems were not as safe as it is believed to be.
However, little is known about Martin. According to page at LinkedIn, spent many years as a partner and consultant, and worked as a consultant for technical studies at the Department of Defense.
