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Comment by softwarebeware | Hacker News Reader

But besides that, can we just take a facepalm to recognize an NSA employee sending _and_ keeping classified data in a personal email server. Like, how did he not know he would get caught, right?

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isnt it obvious that the person believes that they ought to be able to trade that information? rational or irrational, this looks like a fight more than a theft

Tell me more. I would think that everyone with a TOP SECRET/SCI clearance is really clear on what it entails. I can't see someone thinking they could copy it to personal email and send it to someone without a clearance.

It isn't really always clear on what it entails, for example the word "the" will appear in TS documents but you're allowed to use that word without worrying about this happening. Specific pieces of data or groups of data receive a classification based on the harm they can cause if disclosed improperly. However, an entire document receives a classification based on its most sensitive parts so it can be hard to determine what parts of it are actually sensitive. If you don't know, ask, so things like this don't happen. This person should have known better, I can imagine how it's possible to accidently transmit classified data on an unclassified network. But I have a hard time seeing someone make an honest mistake like that 13 times.

What's the point of debating it? The press release seemed to give no information whatsoever that would clue us into motivation.

I would like to see the indictment, if it's not secret itself. There wasn't a link, was there?

Tbh I’d think there would be (technical) mechanisms in place to make this impossible.

Seems to be a recurring issue

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