NSA Has No Clue As To Scope of Snowden's Data Trove 383
krakman writes "According to a NY Times article, a 6-month internal investigation has not been able to define the actual files that Edward Snowden had copied. There is a suspicion that not all the documents have been leaked to newspapers, and a senior NSA official (Rick Ledgett), who is heading the security agency's task force examining Mr. Snowden's leak, has said on the record that he would consider recommending amnesty for Mr. Snowden in exchange for those unleaked documents. 'They've spent hundreds and hundreds of man-hours trying to reconstruct everything he has gotten, and they still don't know all of what he took,' a senior administration official said. 'I know that seems crazy, but everything with this is crazy.' That Mr. Snowden was so expertly able to exploit blind spots in the systems of America's most secretive spy agency illustrates how far computer security still lagged years after President Obama ordered standards tightened after the WikiLeaks revelations of 2010."
Re:They have *worse* to hide? (Score:5, Informative)
...(he used some higher ups credentials)
It has never been disclosed that he used "higher-ups" logins, only that he (supposedly) user "other people's" logins.
Re:Yeah, sure... (Score:5, Informative)
" this new disclosure says to me is that there might be things that go WAY beyond what we have learned"
I thought that was a given. It is well known that Snowden claims to have reserved some mind blowing information, deposited in various places, with a dead man's switch. If he dies or goes missing, the stuff is released.
Re:They have *worse* to hide? (Score:5, Informative)
From the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee [wikipedia.org] to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair [wikipedia.org] to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse [wikipedia.org] to rendition and the junk global telco encryption -
So much is now in history books and can be found by any academic or person -
Think of how the Soviet Union got into any country - the press, academics, students, peace groups, trade unions, banking, trade, mil.... politics
i.e. internal 'news' about trusted names/brands within the USA that where turned by the Soviet Union/Russia or "worked" for the US gov in the private sector.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird [wikipedia.org] gives a hint.
Generations of bulk insider trading within very trusted sectors of the private sector via privileged files and tips/front groups.
Re:Yeah, sure... (Score:4, Informative)
US officials discussed doing three things: 1) demonstrate the nuclear bomb before an international team of scientists 2) warn the Japanese before using it and 3) use it only on a military target. But Truman ultimately chose to go for the maximum psychological impact.
Re:And so, it begins (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/03/part_of_the_conspiracy_2.html [bbc.co.uk]
See also: https://archive.org/details/bbc200109111654-1736 [archive.org]
The BBC erroneously reported the collapse at 4:53 p.m., as acknowledged in the above-linked article. The actual collapse occurred at 5:20 p.m., as confirmed by FEMA: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/fema403_ch5.pdf [fema.gov]
At the time of the BBC's report, however, WTC 7 had been on fire for some time, and was already in danger of imminent collapse, so I don't find it too hard to believe that they simply made an honest mistake in the midst of all the confusion.
Re:And so, it begins (Score:4, Informative)