3 ms·

How could Bradley Manning alone have leaked so much classified material?

31 points by yread 16y ago

yread 16y ago
Unbelievable the primary storage for all the secret documents is Outlook's PST of all things!
- cypherpunks01 16y ago
  Ha, I'm a bit less surprised than you :) Microsoft's crappy products are widely used in the corporate world, and are a massive PITA to migrate away from. For such a huge system like the military's, I'm sure a microsoft salesperson convinced some less-than-well-informed military purchaser to store their data in an arbitrary secret microsoft format many years ago, and things were just never changed.
  - ergo98 16y ago
    Not sure what value the derogatory comments about Microsoft brings. Exporting data from a PST is trivial, whether using the supplied tools or using script access. They obviously use PSTs because somehow it works for them.
    - xxpor 16y ago
      No, clearly it doesn't.
      - ergo98 16y ago
        Just to be clear, they knowingly granted him full access to all of this data (ergo, all of these PSTs). This falls completely under the auspices of "user error", and PST is no more to blame than if they granted administrator access to every user. This is a boring argument that only takes place because people can throw down the tired, unsupported "damn that Microsoft!" card. Sorry, but the reality is more correctly "Damn the intelligence community and inept safeguards and data controls."
    - Groxx 16y ago
      s/works/worked/ The desire to keep doing what used to work, in the face of better alternatives, seems to drive most governmental decisions. Not that they're entirely illogical in doing so. It got them where they are, didn't it?
- tewks 16y ago
  This was the most striking part of the article. "The .pst files are not meant to be a long-term, continuous-use method of storing messages in an enterprise environment." http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019
- pmorici 16y ago
  It makes perfect sense. If you receive all your reports via email you need to save them some place so your 20 MB mail box doesn't overflow and whoever follows you needs to be able to search everything so you stash it all in PST files on your network share drive and then pass those PST files along to the next guy that takes your position. At least that seems to be what the article is basically describing, albeit poorly.
niels_olson 16y ago
> In wartime, the number of young, fresh-out-of-school analysts granted security clearances skyrockets as demand for intelligence increases exponentially. The rest of the article is trivial details, but this is a huge, gapping, recurring problem. As a former SIPRNet user, this always struck me as the most bizarre situation: why are we giving higher-level access to 18 year-olds than, often, mid-grade officers? Sure, we got whatever tactical intel we needed, but where's the sanity check on the other side of the transaction? My personal thought is that the crypto ratings should start at E-5 (mid-grade enlisted), and only be open to folks cross-rating from another specialty (welder, mess cook, infantry, whatever) who have proven a certain degree of loyalty over time. Any psychiatric types care to weigh in?
- fname 16y ago
  Agreed. Though, you have to remember that the method used to determine eligibility for clearance relies heavily on past criminal activities, past drug use and past/current financial activities. All of which should be very minimal for an 18 year old fresh out of boot.
  - rdl 16y ago
    Plus, you're not even allowed to ask questions about any activities before he turned 18. This is insane. I think the DoD needs to create more systems where people can worth with classified data without having wholesale access to classified data. A lot of those controls go away during war, and a lot of internal need to know controls also prevent "synergy" or "serendipity" etc., so it's always a compromise.
  - LiveTheDream 16y ago
    OTOH, 18-year olds are not renowned for their sound judgement.
ceejayoz 16y ago
The article says Manning had a Top Secret clearance, but everything released thus far has topped out at Secret. Perhaps the mysterious insurance .torrent has the Top Secret stuff?
- rdl 16y ago
  It's also possible there were more effective controls on JWICS (TS/SCI) vs. SIPRnet and various portals, so he had less wholesale access to download TS data. Also, TS+ information from Iraq/Afghanistan is probably actually less interesting to the public than S information -- it would be primarily about counterintelligence, rescuing hostages, signals intelligence, certain HUMINT (i.e. infiltration, James Bond spy shit, etc.), certain task forces going after actual al qaeda guys, etc., none of which would cause moral outrage. In a war zone, S is basically anything operational at all, so you get a good overview of how things are going.
rbranson 16y ago
It sounds like the biggest impact WikiLeaks has had is to help INCREASE our homeland security by exposing these gaping security holes in the defense information networks. The information leaked to WikiLeaks is pedestrian compared to what COULD and probably IS leaking to people who could use it to do bad things.
gwern 16y ago
> So how did Manning allegedly manage to get access to the diplomatic cables? They’re transmitted via e-mail in PDF form on a State Department network called ClassNet, but they’re stored in PST form on servers and are searchable. If Manning’s unit needed to know whether Iranian proxies had acquired some new weapon, the information might be contained within a diplomatic cable. All any analyst has to do is to download a PST file with the cables, unpack them, SNAP them up or down to a computer that is capable of interacting with a thumb drive or a burnable CD, and then erase the server logs that would have provided investigators with a road map of the analyst's activities. But analysts routinely download and access large files, so such behavior would not have been seen as unusual. That sounds surprisingly involved to me.
bigwally 16y ago
The entire "Leak" isn't exactly that bad. In some ways it almost looks like it was deliberate. Most of the stuff leaked so far isn't that different from what you hear talking to different consular people. I can't see Hillary Clinton falling on her sword over this.

31 points by yread 16y ago

yread 16y ago

Unbelievable the primary storage for all the secret documents is Outlook's PST of all things!

cypherpunks01 16y ago
Ha, I'm a bit less surprised than you :) Microsoft's crappy products are widely used in the corporate world, and are a massive PITA to migrate away from. For such a huge system like the military's, I'm sure a microsoft salesperson convinced some less-than-well-informed military purchaser to store their data in an arbitrary secret microsoft format many years ago, and things were just never changed.
- ergo98 16y ago
  Not sure what value the derogatory comments about Microsoft brings. Exporting data from a PST is trivial, whether using the supplied tools or using script access. They obviously use PSTs because somehow it works for them.
  - xxpor 16y ago
    No, clearly it doesn't.
    - ergo98 16y ago
      Just to be clear, they knowingly granted him full access to all of this data (ergo, all of these PSTs). This falls completely under the auspices of "user error", and PST is no more to blame than if they granted administrator access to every user. This is a boring argument that only takes place because people can throw down the tired, unsupported "damn that Microsoft!" card. Sorry, but the reality is more correctly "Damn the intelligence community and inept safeguards and data controls."
  - Groxx 16y ago
    s/works/worked/ The desire to keep doing what used to work, in the face of better alternatives, seems to drive most governmental decisions. Not that they're entirely illogical in doing so. It got them where they are, didn't it?
tewks 16y ago
This was the most striking part of the article. "The .pst files are not meant to be a long-term, continuous-use method of storing messages in an enterprise environment." http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019
pmorici 16y ago
It makes perfect sense. If you receive all your reports via email you need to save them some place so your 20 MB mail box doesn't overflow and whoever follows you needs to be able to search everything so you stash it all in PST files on your network share drive and then pass those PST files along to the next guy that takes your position. At least that seems to be what the article is basically describing, albeit poorly.

niels_olson 16y ago

> In wartime, the number of young, fresh-out-of-school analysts granted security clearances skyrockets as demand for intelligence increases exponentially. The rest of the article is trivial details, but this is a huge, gapping, recurring problem. As a former SIPRNet user, this always struck me as the most bizarre situation: why are we giving higher-level access to 18 year-olds than, often, mid-grade officers? Sure, we got whatever tactical intel we needed, but where's the sanity check on the other side of the transaction? My personal thought is that the crypto ratings should start at E-5 (mid-grade enlisted), and only be open to folks cross-rating from another specialty (welder, mess cook, infantry, whatever) who have proven a certain degree of loyalty over time. Any psychiatric types care to weigh in?

fname 16y ago
Agreed. Though, you have to remember that the method used to determine eligibility for clearance relies heavily on past criminal activities, past drug use and past/current financial activities. All of which should be very minimal for an 18 year old fresh out of boot.
- rdl 16y ago
  Plus, you're not even allowed to ask questions about any activities before he turned 18. This is insane. I think the DoD needs to create more systems where people can worth with classified data without having wholesale access to classified data. A lot of those controls go away during war, and a lot of internal need to know controls also prevent "synergy" or "serendipity" etc., so it's always a compromise.
- LiveTheDream 16y ago
  OTOH, 18-year olds are not renowned for their sound judgement.

ceejayoz 16y ago

The article says Manning had a Top Secret clearance, but everything released thus far has topped out at Secret. Perhaps the mysterious insurance .torrent has the Top Secret stuff?

rdl 16y ago
It's also possible there were more effective controls on JWICS (TS/SCI) vs. SIPRnet and various portals, so he had less wholesale access to download TS data. Also, TS+ information from Iraq/Afghanistan is probably actually less interesting to the public than S information -- it would be primarily about counterintelligence, rescuing hostages, signals intelligence, certain HUMINT (i.e. infiltration, James Bond spy shit, etc.), certain task forces going after actual al qaeda guys, etc., none of which would cause moral outrage. In a war zone, S is basically anything operational at all, so you get a good overview of how things are going.

rbranson 16y ago

It sounds like the biggest impact WikiLeaks has had is to help INCREASE our homeland security by exposing these gaping security holes in the defense information networks. The information leaked to WikiLeaks is pedestrian compared to what COULD and probably IS leaking to people who could use it to do bad things.

gwern 16y ago

> So how did Manning allegedly manage to get access to the diplomatic cables? They’re transmitted via e-mail in PDF form on a State Department network called ClassNet, but they’re stored in PST form on servers and are searchable. If Manning’s unit needed to know whether Iranian proxies had acquired some new weapon, the information might be contained within a diplomatic cable. All any analyst has to do is to download a PST file with the cables, unpack them, SNAP them up or down to a computer that is capable of interacting with a thumb drive or a burnable CD, and then erase the server logs that would have provided investigators with a road map of the analyst's activities. But analysts routinely download and access large files, so such behavior would not have been seen as unusual. That sounds surprisingly involved to me.

bigwally 16y ago

The entire "Leak" isn't exactly that bad. In some ways it almost looks like it was deliberate. Most of the stuff leaked so far isn't that different from what you hear talking to different consular people. I can't see Hillary Clinton falling on her sword over this.