back to article Ex-NSA contractor Harold Martin indicted: He spent 'up to 20 years stealing top-secret files'

Former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor Harold Thomas Martin III allegedly stole secret and top-secret software and documents from American intelligence agencies for up to 20 years. That's according to a federal grand jury indictment revealed today. The legal paperwork [PDF] lays out the US Department of Justice's case against …

  1. Blofeld's Cat
    Facepalm

    Er ...

    "... allegedly stole secret and top-secret software and documents from American intelligence agencies for up to 20 years ..."

    Twenty years, you say? Just a suggestion folks, but you might wish to review your security procedures a little.

    I wonder how many contractors have taken classified documents during that period, and not been caught.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Er ...

      If I was working with classified material, and had been helping myself to some of it, I'm pretty sure that after Manning and Snowden I'd get nervous that they were going to start cracking down on that sort of thing and stop.

      I guess they were cracking down - it only took a bit over three years after Snowden to catch this guy!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Er ...

        Depends on the position you are in, if you are part of the team enforcing that new strict regulation of control you might not be too fussed about the crack down as you know how to wriggle around it or remove evidence.

  2. DNTP

    It's traitors like these...

    ...that make me realize the need to ban people from the "Dangerous Seven" and then charge Mexico for that wall.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's traitors like these...

      Except for the fact that this guy is a "white American gent" just like Timothy McVeigh. Terrorists come in vanilla, Christian flavor too, you know. So far, I've yet to hear of any Mexicans causing more terrorism than some ill-conceived tamales. That wall should be to keep the idiots inside of the US from spreading to nearby nations that are not run by a random orange fruitcake.

      1. DNTP

        Re: Except for the fact...

        Uh... ok, I know you might not think too highly of American intelligence at the moment, and you'd probably largely be justified in feeling that way, but possibly my joke at our leader's idiocy went a little over your head?

      2. Jonathan Richards 1
        Thumb Up

        Re: It's traitors like these...

        > orange fruitcake

        Oo! I wonder if that can be on the afternoon tea menu at Buckingham Palace when the President makes his State Visit to Her Majesty's United Kingdom (supposing that he accepts the invitation, of course).

        I'm off to research a recipe.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's traitors like these...

      haha, yes, that makes a lot of sense :)

  3. Oh Homer
    Facepalm

    Just a "compulsive hoarder", allegedly

    What a waste of a good opportunity to further expose a criminal organisation.

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Just a "compulsive hoarder", allegedly

      So less Snowden, more McKinnon, but without the looking for evidence of UFO's?

      But in America sad is not better than bad.

  4. Dr Scrum Master

    Martin?

    Who's this Martin chap? I thought his surname was Ill?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Data Protection

    The guy is a hero. Martin was using his own time and resources to create backups for the organisation he worked for. That's after he learned that these organisation have a terrible backup success rate and that important documents frequently get lost or accidentally erased, when required by courts.

    The real news here is that it took 20 years to find out about this guys outstanding efforts. He should get a lifetime achievement award.

    1. Anonymous IV
      Happy

      Re: Data Protection

      He is getting a lifetime achievement award!

      Ever so many years in prison...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Data Protection

      The guy is a hero. Martin was using his own time and resources to create backups for the organisation he worked for.

      Grin, nice one :).

    3. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: Data Protection

      There's plenty of companies that need someone like Martin, tirelessly creating offsite backups at his own cost, and in his own time.

  6. hplasm
    Holmes

    File size?

    “specific methods, capabilities, techniques, processes, and procedures” for defending government computer systems;

    I'm guessing- 0 bytes

  7. creepy gecko
    Black Helicopters

    NSA security - Level Zero?

    Why does the NSA even bother with "cyber security" when it appears that contract workers can just walk out of the front door with all the USA's secrets stashed in a carrier bag.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: NSA security - Level Zero?

      contract workers can just walk out of the front door with all the USA's secrets stashed in a carrier bag

      Ah, but the fact that they have to use carrier bags is a sign that their CYBERsecurity now works. They just forgot about the rest :)

    2. Jonathan Richards 1

      Re: NSA security - Level Zero?

      Aye, and beginning in 1996, too. There were few CD-R drives, memory sticks or unobtrusive portable mass storage boxes, back then. Floppy disks carried no more than 1.38 MiB, which I suppose is big enough for a few documents, but Top Secret networks typically didn't have floppy disk drives. The earliest stuff was probably carried out through a security checkpoint in good old paper files.

      [1] Certainly no office-based ones in NSA establishments, I expect. See Wikipedia entry

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: NSA security - Level Zero?

        We did have Exabyte 8mm tapes that held many giga bytes. They were physically identical to camcorder tapes. The easiest way of getting a lot of data out the door would be to switch a backup tape. Walking out the door with a tape relabeled "Holiday in Spain" would have been low risk. They were fairly unreliable too so if a backup tape was later found to be blank no one bat an eyelid.

        AC due to having had very high clearance and using such tapes.

  8. netminder

    The real failure

    So this guy had to have regular lie detector tests along with in person interviews and a host of other checks that come with an SCI. But for 20 years they could not weed this guy out. There is the real failure, a reliance on a pseudo-scinetific toy and sloppy profiling.

    1. Hollerithevo

      Re: The real failure

      If you aren't nervous about what you've done and have a clear conscience, the so-called tells that indicate a guilty conscience won't be invoked. If you are a sociopath and don't own a conscience, you will sail through.

    2. tiggity Silver badge

      Re: The real failure

      Everyone (with a clue) knows a classic lie detector (polygraph) test is just pants, but that classic large element of subjective human interpretation involved always helps if you want to give the "desired result"

  9. Potemkine Silver badge

    Someone has to ask

    Is there any contractor for the NSA who does _not_ steal sensitive data? ^^

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Someone has to ask

      Yeah, the ones that don't work for Booz Allen...

  10. 9Rune5

    Hoarder?

    I'd go with a different defence: "The money was just resting in my account." https://youtu.be/-bnh162vqk4

  11. Alistair
    Windows

    Hmmm.

    Enhanced post retirement career path support documentation.

    <not like pensions are what they used to be you know>

  12. Adam Foxton

    Booz Allen

    Should probably just re-open as penetrative testers. They've already had the very best in the business working for them :P

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like