Every time I read about a private company being targeted, I remember how simply state-level spies have been compromised. Hanssen[1], for instance, betrayed the

Every time I read about a private company being targeted, I remember how simply state-level spies have been compromised. Hanssen[1], for instance, betrayed the CIA over 22 years, for just $1.4M. The info leaked included info on other agents, at least one who was executed. Or [2], Walker gave crypto info to decrypt Navy messages. For a few grand a month. There's plenty more listed even on Wikipedia. The amounts involved seem... not that high. Now, sure, Apple almost certainly has higher security. (Quote from the above spy: "KMart has better security than the Navy.") But with state level resources, do we think employees can be flipped? Or, why is the NSA not getting to grads early on, helping their career, while having them really be agents all along? I'm on my phone and can't find the reference now, but there was a young physicist that leaked into on atomic weapons purely because he felt the US shouldn't have a monopoly on the capability. The chance that some bright, highly-sought, employee feeling that the US should have spy capabilities is approximately 1. Is every remotely sensitive employee routinely monitored? Their families? They never get into " life threatening " scenarios? Or embarrassing scenarios that they might feel is the end? (For some, that's as simple as getting a mistress pregnant, and not being able to bear others knowing.) Just seems like the human employees have got to be compromisable in one form or another, given the resources of the NSA and CIA. 1: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Anthony_Walker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Anthony_Walker