Re: Encryption, please?
"if the data had been encrypted"
For Top Secret data this isn't the panacea that many imagine it to be, no commercial encryption meets the requirements for Top Secret.
"seeing a hand-written list of programs, user names, and passwords, just doesn't fill me with confidence"
The fact that you are seeing it doesn't fill me with confidence.
The fact that several different accounts and services are listed on the same sheet doesn't fill me with confidence.
The use of a paper based password log doesn't worry me. If you think about it if that log were in a safe designed to the appropriate standard it would not be accessible to a hacker. I'm also shocked that some dweeb didn't understand why passwords were recorded on paper and chose to scan the sheet and put it on an insecure system.
What also shocks me is the list of commercial services used, including QuickBooks. For special operations? That's careless to the point of criminal negligence. Someone's sensitive parts should be in a mangle for this. Just think, if the US is this bad at national security, should you be sending any of your personal data to the USA?