
NSA contractor indicted over mammoth theft of classified data - happy-go-lucky
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cybersecurity-nsa-contractor-idUSKBN15N2N4?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+reuters%252FtechnologyNews+%2528Reuters+Technology+News%2529
======
drunkpotato
Meanwhile David Petraeus stole classified information and leaked it to his
biographer, then lied about it to the FBI, and got a slap on the wrist. Let's
see if Harold gets such a plum deal.

~~~
JohnStrange
What I find interesting about this case is that he was able to obtain so many
documents.

It's especially interesting to me because I'm currently writing a novel that
involves an NSA employee, and in my novel any bags are controlled for
documents and electronic devices at the entrance to NSA Headquarters, Fort
Meade, and employees have to go through airport-like scanners both when they
enter and exit the building. Obviously, this is fantasy and I've never been
there.

Am I being unrealistic? Should I instead assume that everybody with a green
employee badge can just walk in and walk out with a trove of documents under
his arm, as long as they are in a nice envelope?

Also, I should mention that I feel sorry for Harold. He just seems to be a
pathological hoarder with no evil intentions.

------
WestCoastJustin
He supposedly had 50TB+ worth of data sitting at his place. This almost seems
inaccurate as that's like 25 x 2TB drives. I know this is said to have
happened over 20 years, but hard drive capacity has only increased within the
last few years to where this is manageable. He must have had a huge storage
array. Logistically, how do you even walk out with that? Cannot transfer it
over the network as that would take years and surely not go unnoticed. This
included 75% of exploits used by the NSA. Just seems so crazy that this could
go unnoticed for so long. You think they would be watching everything like a
hawk.

[http://boingboing.net/2016/10/20/nsa-contractor-harold-
thoma...](http://boingboing.net/2016/10/20/nsa-contractor-harold-
thomas-m.html)

~~~
metaphor
What makes you think the data was all stored on standard hard drives? How
about: CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, magneto-optical disks, Zip disks, USB thumb
drives, high-density archive media that I'm not even familiar with...oh, and
hard drives.

What does _huge storage array_ even mean in today's context? I recently built
a 20TB server at a price point less than a new 13" MacBook Pro for personal
use that occupies a cross section the size of a notebook sitting at the edge
my desk...all from commercial-grade hardware that's been on the market for at
least 2 years. I would think that the home setup of any serious professional
engineer who has been in industry for the better part of my adult life would
have some sweet kit up his sleeves.

Imagine this: authorities confiscate anything that looks like storage media,
storage capacity rough order of magnitude is calculated, figures reported to
media, an assumption is made that it's all highly classified, spin some click
bait article.

We're talking about a civilian contractor from private industry who supposedly
played an "advisor" role, not some intern whose shoulder was constantly being
looked over.

~~~
bigiain
So 50TB on CDs (google google google, calculate calculate calculate) is a pile
of over 73,500 1.2mm thick disks approximately 92.3m or just over 300 feet
high.

I'm _pretty_ sure that's not how he got the data out. 18 CDs every working day
for 20 years? Nope.

(A DVD pile might only be 50 feet high, but they almost didn't exist 20 years
ago - certainly not at "I'll just fill up three of these every day at work"
prices.)

;-)

~~~
metaphor
So let's pretend 50TB is unquestionably a legit figure, pick the lower storage
density of arbitrarily listed portable media options that a single person
could think of off the top of his head, and assume exfiltration was
_exclusively_ performed with this media type (think think think, ponder ponder
ponder). Nope. /s

Did you even pause for a second to consider that 50TB may be a grossly
misrepresented figure, or digest the parent comment to size up the context of
my remark?

~~~
bigiain
Yeah - I did pause for a second and reconsider the furthest extreme of the
reductio ad absurdum arguement, I'd _considered_ quoting the height of the
pile in 0.39" thick jewel cases - which comes out at over 2500feet tall - but
I didn't want to get _too_ silly...

(Apologies if you thought I was taking you out of context disparagingly -
there's some gross misrepresentations here by people including me...)

------
bluedino
50TB is very, very plausible. Look at the October release:

 _On Aug 27, 2016, search warrants were executed at Martin 's residence in
Glen Burnie, MD, including two storage sheds as well as upon his vehicle and
person. During execution of the warrants, investigators located hard-copy
documents and digital information stored on various devices and removable
digital media. A large percentage of the materials recovered from Martin's
residence and vehicle bore markings indicating that they were property of the
US government_

Removable digital media. Let's just assume this guy had access to backup tapes
and was stealing them. LTO tapes start out at what, 100GB and are something
like 1TB each right now? The guy could very easily had a couple hundred backup
tapes.

Various devices. Maybe he had some servers, desktops, laptops, hell maybe a
small (at the time) storage array or two. He had stuff stockpiled in his shed.

The real question is, what was the data?

~~~
maxander
Perhaps he didn't even want the data. "Hey, they're just going to toss this
terabyte harddrive? What a waste!"

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Old drives are put through an industrial shredder.

~~~
x1798DE
Only if someone doesn't think, "What a waste to shred a perfectly good hard
drive!" and takes it home first.

~~~
John23832
It's _very_ well know in contractor circles that if you remove anything you're
likely risking your job.

~~~
fjdlwlv
Yes, until you remove 50 and realize they aren't so good at enforcing security
policy

------
sobinator
[https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/government-contractor-
facing-...](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/government-contractor-facing-
federal-indictment-willful-retention-national-defense)

They should screen for laziness when vetting TS-SCI clearance. Something tells
me that the only rational justification for this irrational move was that it
somehow made his life easier. I don't think a mole would have the guts to pull
something like this.

------
appleflaxen
The NSA and federal government have lost the presumption of reasonableness in
my eyes... rl3 mentioned no motive, and the possibility of a compulsion is a
great hypothesis. if so, it's just one more example of the government
persecuting the mentally ill to inflate their numbers (like the FBI agents who
incite schizophrenic individuals to act on a hare-brained "bomb plot", and
then bust them).

~~~
tbihl
I'm not sure I really follow where you're going, but NSA is a very different
organization from the FBI. Not only is this not good press for them, but
probably there isn't any press that is good for them. They work best when
they're being ignored, and the only time I can remember them seeking attention
was that talk by the head of TAO early last year.

~~~
bediger4000
No press good for the NSA doesn't mean that no press for them is good for the
rest of humanity ( _everyone_ has to consider NSA as a threat, really, not
just non-USA-persons). Is is good for even US taxpayers to not know where $60+
billion dollars a year go? Is it good for US taxpayers to not know that every
byte of Internet communications gets stored for later use against them?

I don't think so.

------
milesf
I'm curious to know how he was caught. He managed to evade detection for 20
years as a contractor? For the NSA not to have checks and balances internally
in place to be able to detect illegal access to assets by 3rd parties a little
faster than two decades is incompetent.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Right! He was caught because of an 'audit'. The first in 20 years? Incredible.

------
rl3
A somewhat more informative article here:

[http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/8/14555238/nsa-leak-
indictmen...](http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/8/14555238/nsa-leak-indictment-
harold-thomas-martin-20-charges)

50TB is a lot for a single person. How the heck did he even store it all?

The article mentions no motive. Without knowing all the facts, it almost seems
like it was some sort of irrational compulsion.

~~~
ekianjo
it says up to 50tb. knowing the sense of hyperbole of government agencies the
reality is probably ten times less.

~~~
CamperBob2
Cop bytes.

~~~
zkms
cop bytes, is that the same thing as when police exaggerate "street value" of
seized drugs

~~~
5ilv3r
So 5 street terabytes?

------
jorblumesea
1\. Booz Allen is the same contractor as Snowden. I wonder at what point does
the Govt reconsider their relationship.

2\. Thoughts on what he wanted/did with all of that information? It seems
extremely amateur and not someone versed in tradecraft to have all of that
just sitting around. I wonder if he was selling this stuff on the side, Shadow
Brokers tools were definitely govt sponsored.

~~~
UnfalseDesign
Booz Allen Hamilton has 22,000 employees. I'm going to guess that the
government won't see 2 of them stealing document and hence tear up all their
contracts with Booz Allen. Also, the article said that Booz Allen is hiring a
form FBI director to lead an audit into their security and personnel. That
should keep the government from reconsidering their contracts.

~~~
fjdlwlv
Yep, and if not, they can call the current directors to offer to hire them in
a couple of years too.

------
jlgaddis
He was raided and arrested in August. He was indicted today.

Has he just been sitting in a jail cell -- without being charged -- in the
meantime? I assume the government argued against letting him out on bond on
the grounds that he was a national security risk.

 _Edit:_ Looks like he was "charged with felony theft of classified government
material" at that time, according to another article.

------
bitJericho
Too bad he wasn't able to release it publicly

~~~
Taek
Given how long he had it, doesn't seem like he had any intention to.

------
the_common_man
I am curious what happens if this happens at Google or Facebook. How hard is
it to reach Google/FB user data for an engineer?

~~~
effie
I think it depends on whether the engineer works in capacity where he has
regular access to the data as part of his work goals. If yes (analytics
people), easy. If not (frontend developer), extremely difficult.

------
jdironman
I feel like the problem with proving his innocence lies within proving that
the documents which were found unconditionally and legitimately belonged to
the US government or anyone for that matter.

Why are such 'TOP SECRET' documents not hashed or otherwise? Anybody can
Photoshop or even copy and paste an 'emblem' or 'indicia' as his original
criminal complaint made by agent Jeremy Bucalo describes. Documents can be
completely falsified especially if all that identifies it is a seal or marking
and basic text.

I just feel like there is something more here.

~~~
tps5
If your reaction to this news is "something more is going on here" then I
think you need to take a step back and re-calibrate your bullshit detector.

Could there be more to this than meets the eye? Yeah. There could also be more
to the moon landing than meets the eye.

It seems to me we all must, in our attempt to be rational, do our best to
check our biases. For a lot of people on hackernews, that means second
guessing your immediate "NSA cover-up" reaction to any item of news involving
the NSA.

I think the most likely scenario here is that the government is making an
example of this man. I don't think that's right, and I hope he gets off with
as slight a punishment as possible, but it is a fact that governments have
secrets and have enacted laws in order to try to keep them.

~~~
jdironman
If we are to be rational, regarding anything at all which is to be truly
understood, then all sides of an argument must be considered. Scrutinized,
yes. Saying someone is just calling 'bullshit' and they need to rethink or re-
calibrate their 'bullshit detectors' or initial thoughts is not in line with
that.

I agree with you at the same time that they could simply be making an example
of this man.

But, I believe they are 'making an example of him' to cover their own
incompetence. I am not saying evidence has been planted, concocted, or
otherwise. I am saying this just not seem like a cut and dried case of
mishandling by a long term employee who should be more than aware of
procedures and policies in place after 20 years.

~~~
tps5
I think they're likely making an example of him to send a message: "people
with clearance and access to classified data, take this shit seriously."

------
pdimitar
You know, when a guy who employed Edward Snowden is allowed to steal
classified data for 20 years (even after Snowden's revelations), then I think
we all should reassess our view of the No-Such-Agency as an all-powerful
entity.

Clearly, they are plagued by the same bureaucracy hurdles and lack of
attention to human resource detail as every other governmental agency.

Things might not be so bad after all.

~~~
fjdlwlv
Powerful+incompetent = dangerous, just in a different way than
powerful+competent

------
JackFr
Its astonishing that Booz Allen is still able to work contracts for the NSA
and that this guys superiors at the NSA haven't seemed to face any sanction
(at least publicly.)

The managerial tree on this guy through at least two levels up should be fired
and potentially face further sanctions. Booz Allen should be forbidden from
working contracts which require clearance for 10 years.

The larger issue isn't what this guy did (or even what Snowden did) -- it's a
failure of the organization and a failure of process. Organizationally, any
one bad actor, especially a low/medium level contractor, should not be able to
do this.

~~~
MrZongle2
_" Booz Allen should be forbidden from working contracts which require
clearance for 10 years."_

That would most likely kill Booz Allen.

Between this and Snowden, I'd hate to be a cleared employee there (again); in
addition to the increased/remedial training I'm sure has been put on their
plates, they're probably getting panicky emails and warnings from principals
and partners about the importance of their position.

It's probably like the TPS report memo scene from "Office Space".

But firings two levels up? Doubtful. The wagons would be circled and enough
CYA emails sent to prevent that.

~~~
JackFr
I agree with you on all points about the impossibility of my recommendations.
But I still believe it's an organizational failure at the highest levels -
this guy is the symptom not the disease.

~~~
MrZongle2
It's certainly a possibility, though I wonder how Booz Allen management
_could_ have recognized a potential problem. It's entirely possible that
Martin was simply embedded with the NSA and Booz Allen management only saw him
every couple of weeks as a "pulse check". If the client (NSA) had no
complaints, then Martin could have been considered a "model" employee. And
even if his fellow employees knew he was a hoarder...would that have really
been cause for suspicion?

Additionally, in fairness to Booz Allen, in the article it states: _" Martin
was employed as a private contractor by at least seven different companies,
working for several government agencies beginning in 1993 after serving in the
U.S. Navy for four years, according to the indictment."_

So if we're going to hang Booz Allen management out to dry, there might be a
few other companies deserving of it as well.

------
besselheim
I wonder if this is at all related to the recent 'Shadow Brokers' leaks.

Positive news that they caught him anyway, another Snowden-like espionage
drama would be highly undesirable.

~~~
Taek
If the documents were as significant as the Snowden leaks, I would say better
to have the drama than to let it go under the radar. If there wasn't really
anything that interesting in the documents, then it probably wouldn't have
been all that dramatic.

------
alexnewman
Yea I am sorry I stopped believing these people a while ago

------
brilliantcode
I'm just super curious to know what the data holds. It'd be interesting to see
what they were doing and what they saw coming from 1996 and onwards.

~~~
jmnicolas
Check if Booz Allen Hamilton is recruiting, you might get lucky ;-)

------
ommunist
I fail to recognise how 200 years of jail to a 53-years man can compensate
damage to the US national security of that size.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
No demonstrable damage? It sat in his garage.

~~~
ommunist
Perhaps, this was a technical backup, to help NSA recover their lost data,
just in case.

------
slim
> Martin was employed by at least seven different private companies and
> assigned as a contractor to work at a number of government agencies

Looks like a corruption scheme to me

------
harry8
Honest question: Why haven't Booz Allen Hamilton had their contract revoked
and put on a blacklist of never working for the government again?

~~~
angry_octet
They are a labour hire contractor in these instances. Some program needs
qualified and cleared contractor staff, Booz have that sorted. The clearances
are handled by another government agency (the notoriously hacked OPM) and
their (sometimes lax) contractors. Probably his only interaction with Booz was
they sent him a paycheck, 401k, social, health insurance, etc.

~~~
zeveb
> Some program needs qualified and cleared contractor staff, Booz have that
> sorted.

Apparently not. After Snowden & this guy, BAH clearly has issues providing
qualified staff.

(and yes, apparently OPM has issues too)

