Elite CIA unit that developed hacking tools failed to secure its own systems, allowing massive leak

[Zorro]

Source: Washington Post

Elite CIA unit that developed hacking tools failed to secure its own systems, allowing massive leak, an internal report found

The theft of top-secret computer hacking tools from the CIA in 2016 was the result of a workplace culture in which the agency’s elite computer hackers “prioritized building cyber weapons at the expense of securing their own systems,” according to an internal report prepared for then-director Mike Pompeo as well as his deputy, Gina Haspel, now the current director.

The breach — allegedly by a CIA employee — was discovered a year after it happened, when the information was published by WikiLeaks, in March 2017. The anti-secrecy group dubbed the release “Vault 7,” and U.S. officials have said it was the biggest unauthorized disclosure of classified information in the CIA’s history, causing the agency to shut down some intelligence operations and alerting foreign adversaries to the spy agency’s techniques.

The October 2017 report by the CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force, several pages of which were missing or redacted, portrays an agency more concerned with bulking up its cyber arsenal than keeping those tools secure. Security procedures were “woefully lax” within the special unit that designed and built the tools, the report said.

Absent WikiLeaks’s disclosure, the CIA might never have known the tools had been stolen, according to the report. “Had the data been stolen for the benefit of a state adversary and not published, we might still be unaware of the loss,” the task force concluded.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/elite-cia-unit-that-developed-hacking-tools-failed-to-secure-its-own-systems-allowing-massive-leak-an-internal-report-found/2020/06/15/502e3456-ae9d-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html

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Sheesh....

[Iliyah]

1. This sounds like the onion . .

[Javaman]

10. our government currently is the onion. nt

[PurgedVoter]

12. Na, our government is a Ogre

But then Ogres are like onions.

[Miguelito Loveless]

2. People running the CIA

tend to be the sort that view The X-Files as a documentary and have the work ethic/competence of The Three Stooges.

[Scarsdale]

3. So then Pompous Pompeo was

promoted to Sec. of State. HE is padding his resume, and bank account at taxpayer expense, for his run for the WH in 2024. Talk about "failing upward" this is too common in this administration. That includes the WH.

[mr_lebowski]

5. How was Pompeo in charge when the leak happened in 2016?

Trump didn't take office until 2017.

I know, it feels like it's been 100 years, but ...

[BComplex]

7. Why in the F*** did Obama put Pompeo in charge?

[ancianita]

4. OFFS

[mopinko]

6. see? data really does want to be free.

[Crowman2009]

8. Must have been some contractors that were sub-concrated by a contractor.

The more layers of contractors, the more mistakes. With almost all the money going to somebody up top to does jack shit.

[irisblue]

9. Harold Finch is appalled.

And that is a reference from the TV show, Person Of Interest, 2011-16.

That show presented what seemed SciFi about Artificial Intelligence then and is commonly known info now.

[FakeNoose]

11. Pootie has been laughing about this for 4 years

You think he wasn't the first to know? Think again.

[saidsimplesimon]

13. Major network outages this past weekend.

According to my SIL, his cell phone went berserk.

Are providers looking for cover, or are Republicans enabling Russian or Chinese hackers?