Coverage of recent government data thefts by trusted insiders have tended to focus on how new technology can be used to accomplish massive security breaches. However, cases like those of NSA contract employee Edward Snowden and Army private Bradley Manning are also emblematic of a much older pattern in espionage, one that for the U.S. reaches back to the treachery of Benedict Arnold in the Revolutionary War. Simply stated, there has been a chronic problem with insiders using their access to sensitive data in ways that undermine national security. The motives for misusing data have varied from money to ideology to ego, but the behavior has persisted over many generations, and now threatens to get completely out of hand as digitization and the proliferation of new media facilitate the unauthorized transfer of data. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.
Find Archived Articles: