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 NSA4650 PRIMARY Appliance | 01-SSC-1938 | SEALED BOX | FAST SHIP picture

SonicWall NSA4650 PRIMARY Appliance | 01-SSC-1938 | SEALED BOX | FAST SHIP

$1970.00



NSA Prop Firm Robot MT4 Unlimited System Metatrader 4 Expert Advisor Robot Fx picture

NSA Prop Firm Robot MT4 Unlimited System Metatrader 4 Expert Advisor Robot Fx

$48.99



KEMP LoadMaster 3600 NSA3110-LM3600  SSD NO HDD or CORD picture

KEMP LoadMaster 3600 NSA3110-LM3600 SSD NO HDD or CORD

$125.00



SonicWall NSA 3600 Network Security Appliance - Tested and Working #73 picture

SonicWall NSA 3600 Network Security Appliance - Tested and Working #73

$130.00



Cudy P5 5G RM520N-GL Model X62 - 5G SA/NSA AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 picture

Cudy P5 5G RM520N-GL Model X62 - 5G SA/NSA AX3000 Wi-Fi 6

$485.00



Dell SonicWall NSA 3600 Network Security Appliance Firewall picture

Dell SonicWall NSA 3600 Network Security Appliance Firewall

$79.99



SonicWall NSA 3650 Network Security/Firewall Appliance - Transfer Unknown picture

SonicWall NSA 3650 Network Security/Firewall Appliance - Transfer Unknown

$325.00



Cudy 5G NR SA NSA AX3000 WiFi 6 CPE Router, AX3000 Dual SIM 5G Cellular Router picture

Cudy 5G NR SA NSA AX3000 WiFi 6 CPE Router, AX3000 Dual SIM 5G Cellular Router

$450.00



BARRACUDA Firewall X300 BFWX300A NSA1120A-X300 Intel Atom D525 1.80Ghz 2Gb DDR2 picture

BARRACUDA Firewall X300 BFWX300A NSA1120A-X300 Intel Atom D525 1.80Ghz 2Gb DDR2

$124.99



KEMP Loadmaster 3400 NSA3130-LM3400 Intel Xeon E31225 3.1GHz Server w/8GB DDR3 picture

KEMP Loadmaster 3400 NSA3130-LM3400 Intel Xeon E31225 3.1GHz Server w/8GB DDR3

$274.99