Edward Snowden successfully assumed the electronic identities of top NSA officials to access some of the secret National Security Agency documents he leaked, Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole and Robert Windrem of NBC News report.

“Every day, they are learning how brilliant [Snowden] was,” a former U.S. official with knowledge of the case told NBC. “This is why you don’t hire brilliant people for jobs like this. You hire smart people. Brilliant people get you in trouble.”

The 30-year-old’s role as a “system administrator” meant that he was able to access NSAnet, the agency’s intranet, using those user profiles and without leaving any signature.

An official told NBC that the NSA identified several instances in which the elite NSA-trained hacker impersonated officials, and that the spy agency’s forensic investigation is “trying to figure out which higher level officials Snowden impersonated online to access the most sensitive documents.”

His role as system administrator also meant that he had the ability to download files from his computer to an external storage device — Snowden reportedly downloaded tens of thousands of classified documents onto thumb drives before flying from Hawaii to Hong Kong on May 20.

“The damage, on a scale of 1 to 10, is a 12,” a former intelligence official told NBC.

On Monday Esposito and Cole reported that Snowden functioned as a “ghost user,” meaning that he was able “look at any file he wanted, and his actions were largely unaudited.”

Last week Michael Isikoff, Cole, and Esposito reported that the NSA is “overwhelmed” does not know the full extent of the tens of thousands of documents the former NSA contractor took from its system.

Snowden is currently living in Russia.

Source: Business Insider


SonicWall NSA 3600 Pre Owned Not Tested picture

SonicWall NSA 3600 Pre Owned Not Tested

$61.58



Technology AC Adapter NSA-0531F12 +12VDC Power Supply Charger picture

Technology AC Adapter NSA-0531F12 +12VDC Power Supply Charger

$11.99



Genuine Lenovo Yoga 910-13IKB USB C Charging Port Board with Cable NS-A901 picture

Genuine Lenovo Yoga 910-13IKB USB C Charging Port Board with Cable NS-A901

$149.99



Kemp Loadmaster 2400 NSA3130-LM2400 Intel Celeron G1620 2.70Ghz Server w/1GBDDR3 picture

Kemp Loadmaster 2400 NSA3130-LM2400 Intel Celeron G1620 2.70Ghz Server w/1GBDDR3

$90.95



A Pair of SonicWall 1RK25-084 NSA 2400 Network Security Appliance NSA 2400 picture

A Pair of SonicWall 1RK25-084 NSA 2400 Network Security Appliance NSA 2400

$35.75



Dell SonicWALL NSA 4600 Network Security Appliance Ready For Transfer  picture

Dell SonicWALL NSA 4600 Network Security Appliance Ready For Transfer

$190.00



SonicWALL 01-SSC-200 NSA2650 High Availability HA UNIT Firewall Transfer Ready picture

SonicWALL 01-SSC-200 NSA2650 High Availability HA UNIT Firewall Transfer Ready

$359.99



Dell SonicWALL NSA 2600 1RK29-0A9 Network Security Appliances Lot of 2 picture

Dell SonicWALL NSA 2600 1RK29-0A9 Network Security Appliances Lot of 2

$99.99



SonicWALL 01-SSC-1937 NSA 3650 3.75 Gbps Firewall - Non-Transferrable picture

SonicWALL 01-SSC-1937 NSA 3650 3.75 Gbps Firewall - Non-Transferrable

$349.99



Dell SonicWALL NSA220 220  Network Security Appliance Firewall Router APL24-08E picture

Dell SonicWALL NSA220 220 Network Security Appliance Firewall Router APL24-08E

$32.99