Continuing the discussion from Russia invades Ukraine {2022-02-24} (Part 2):
With a suspect for the leaks identified, there’s probably going to be a lot to discuss on the topic, so let’s split it off from the general Ukraine invasion thread. Here we can discuss the leak, its impact on the war (hypothetical or actual), and hopefully the eventual trial of the asshole who leaked it.
Here’s the latest on the leaker, copied from the other thread.
He should be tried for treason and, if found guiltily, given the max sentence as an example to others who mishandle top secert documents. This shit has got to stop.
Especially if he was being paid to do it, as opposed to as a “patriotic” act (which should still be punished, but seems less morally reprehensible in my eyes to an extent).
It looks like he was radicalised by the mass media, as so many in the US are these days. Handing top secret clearance to 1.2m people in such an environment seems unwise, if not damn stupid. But perhaps that claim is inaccurate or misleading because it seems extraordinary.
This is very embarrassing for the US, but worse it affects the war which means people may die as a result of this idiot.
As I understand it, “top secret” is a classification level, not a big catchall category. In other words, if I am granted top secret clearance, that doesn’t mean I have access to everything with a top-secret stamp. You still need to demonstrate that you have a need to see this particular subset of material. Getting the top-secret authorization, apparently, is just a first line of checking which simplifies things administratively, to filter out the people who shouldn’t see any of it.
The point being, X million people having top secret clearance doesn’t really tell us anything.
Dude’s going to spend a lot of his life in prison because he wanted to impress strangers on the internet. Jeez.
An arrest has been made.
This appears to be a New York Times gift link, but not mine, so I hope it works.
Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, 21, was arrested by the FBI.
He seems a bit low-level for access to Top Secret information, including international relations and Ukraine war details.
Maybe he stole them from someone who was lax in secure handling of classified information.
Based on what?
Retired general Mark Hertling responds:
It’s quite possible that he was not specifically authorized to handle that material. Unless it was in the most trivial form of “handle”, like a documents clerk. Who handles everything but isn’t authorized to read or act on anything.
But again, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning had routine access to material they didn’t have a specific need-to-know.
And as pointed out, a lot of the actual first-pass analysis work in military intelligence is done by fairly low-ranking analysts.
Just the breadth of topics, really, which, aside from all the Ukraine War info, includes stuff on Russia, China, Egypt, Iran, Hungary, Serbia, South Korea, Israel, Turkey, Canada, Haiti and the United Arab Emirates.
In a video seen by Washington Post, a man identified as OG* is seen at a shooting range with a large rifle making racial and antisemitic slurs on camera.
As the investigation has closed in on the leaker, there are serious questions to be asked about the latest highly embarrassing leak of US intelligence.
Perhaps top of the list is how someone so young and emotionally insecure, and with racist and anti-establishment views, could have been allowed access to a site with highly classified intelligence.
Equally shocking, as the story is emerging, is how that individual was able to remove classified material from a secure site without raising suspicions.
*Teixeira’s Discord handle.
Apparently, this is another Snowden.
Teixeira was a “Cyber Transport Systems Journeyman”, or IT guy:
That might be why he was able to see information on such a diverse range of topics.
No it doesn’t. The obvious approach is to encrypt a document and only send keys on how to decrypt that document file to those few people who need to read it. Instead it sounds like the Defense Department is sending around classified documents in plain text.
On protected networks and systems, so it’s all good. 
Now I (a cleared defense contractor) get to live through another spasm of insider threat panic.
Call it panic if you will, but these breaches are a major problem.
IMO, it’s way past time to get our collective house in order on the security side.
These are uncertain times internationally and we should err on the side of caution.
If someone has to take more classes or if they lose access to sensitive information -too bad.
People up the food chain will still have access and know about the state of things. It’s their responsibility to pass any job specific information to their subordinates. Giving everyone access is just a lazy practice by management.
File encryption has been around for many years so I’m not buying that an IT tech should be able to read all files just because they maintain a secure encrypted server.
I hope nobody dies as a result of this childish adventure.