Harold Martin and his ‘breathtaking’ heist of top-secret data
Fox News reports that Harold Martin, an NSA contractor, a Navy veteran, is expected to plead guilty today to stealing 50 terabytes of data found in his home along with dozens of computers and six full bankers’ boxes worth of documents.
According to the indictment, Martin was hired as a private contractor by at least seven companies and worked for multiple government agencies since 1993. His position granted him various security clearances and access to highly-sensitive government information, the indictment noted.
At NSA, he worked at its hacking unit and took material that included most, if not all, of the agency’s hacking tools – the same tools that later ended up on sale on the Internet by a group calling itself Shadow Brokers, The New York Times reported.
He was arrested in August 2016 while he was an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp, Edward Snowden’s employer.
Thanks to AW1Ed for the link.
Category: Crime
Booz Allen Hamilton should be given two strikes and you’re out.
Head honchos are buried in to deep with the heads of NSA and other Intelligence agencies. Lots of corruption and shady business still goes on with the hiring practices of BAH.
How did Edward Snowden get hired as a BAH contractor with NSA after such a disastrous stint as a CIA contractor? Here’s a hint. He’s not this super genius some claim him to be.
It helps to have family members as higher up GS’s with connections. After all, most of the time it’s not what you know. It’s who you know.
I have been asking myself how they still hold the contracts after the likes of Snowden. Then this, I dont understand it.
Booz Allen has always enjoyed the reputation of leaving a trail of slime wherever they go.
Apologies to the “straight shooter” BAH employees, but it is what it is and has been, IMO.
BAH should be permanently barred from work in the IC, IMO.
As someone with experience as a hiring manager for a contract supporting an IC agency, in can tell you that this has nothing to do with the contract company. In order to be considered for a position on an IC contract, the candidate has to have a current TS/SCI and, unless the candidate has an exceptional skill set, a current polygraph. For those without a poly, they are hired contingent upon passing the poly.
After meeting those requirements, the agency then does an additional background check, to include deep dives into finances and lifestyle. I’ve seen people who have held a TS/SCI for their entire military careers wait a year for the agency to complete their investigations.
Given the amount of time that this guy was working at the NSA, he’s had multiple investigations and polys conducted by the agency. So, don’t blame the contractor, blame the government.
How lax are these security procedures at these places? He’s walking out with tons of classified material?
The one time I got to see security clearance material they practically stripped searched me going into the room and again when I went out, and I was under observation the whole time.
The security folks must have been hitting the Booz a little too hard.
Ha!
Allen’s coffee brandy is the biggest seller in Maine.
Lowest Bidder.
From MrBill’s Wiki link:
“Martin is reported to have stolen the classified information simply by walking out of secure workplaces with it in his possession.”
Again, UFB.
He doesn’t look like a criminal mastermind, so I hope some of the security/IG/whatever people are also held accountable.
Once you’re completely vetted you just badge and PIN in and badge out. You may be searched every once in a blue moon (at random) when entering or leaving the campus but that’s it. I’m sure he was just bringing stuff out a little at a time in a backpack.
Rx for Harold Martin:
Hot tar & feathers applied to epidermis daily for 30 days, followed by 29 lashes with a horsewhip to bare epidermis daily for 30 days.
Repeat until symptoms of traitor dissipate.
I could live with that.
230 grains of copper-jacketed lead administered via high-velocity facial injection is much more economical, though.
You are way too merciful, TOW. Although economy does have it’s attractions.
That’s a waste of a damned good bullet!! Throw him to Thor, Bubba, Tiny, Junior, and all the other “friendly” guys wearing wide pinstriped “suits”
!. Rope.
2. Tree or Gallows.
3. Harold Martin.
Some Assembly Required.
And the black helos come if I so much as stick a thumb drive in my NMCI computer.
UFB.
TINS.
HA HA!! I lived that shit for years. I worked in the G6 so I had to deal with those jokers all the time. Now the USMC network is Government owned and operated – thankfully – and things aren’t as much of a pain in the ass anymore.
Flash drives are still a no-no, but at least it’s friendly neighborhood Marines that come and accost you for flash media usage now!
Cocksucker!
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
Shack!
Mick, you are causing me traumatic brain injuries with your unrestricted explosions all over TAH. The screen shakes every time. I got dust falling from the ceiling.
I think I am gonna have to start wearing ear plugs.
There’s a good Wikipedia article on him with lots of links. Turns out he’s former Navy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_T._Martin_III
Fucking Walker wannabe POS
50 TERABYTES of digital data and 6 BANKER’S BOXES of hardcopy documents??
Ho Lee Chit!
For a moment I thought you were going to say Ho Chi Minh.
Whoever vetted this traitor should hang …
… and it sounds like it should start at Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp.
I seem to recall they favor recruiting employees who already have a TS/SCI clearance, which Martin probably got when in the Navy Reserve. Still, the excess of ‘contractors’ in all these government roles, and the uneasy way in which the agencies seem to be lax on security with them is fucking terrible.
This guy didn’t just have all sorts of tools and strategies, he even had names of covert officers. How the hell that’s not compartmentalized and encrypted on a need-to-know basis is beyond me.
One has God-like powers in the Hacking Unit. Which is completely wrong, IMO.
Gee whiz. Gosh. What did he do, walk out with these things stuffed into his underwear? Nobody paid any attention to what he was doing?
No wonder Experian got hacked. He probably sold their info to the hackers. Well, at least he did it for the money instead of some ethereal, mystical feeling of superiority.
Maybe it’s time we stopped being dependent on computers and relied more on real-time stuff.
“What did he do, walk out with these things stuffed into his underwear?”
The name Sandy Berger ring a bell, Ex?
Bob Hope on a British TV show in 1968 joked about how computers were taking over & putting people out of work. One mainframe can do the job of a 100 people even before it’s been assembled.
No, it’s time some parts of NSA downsized. It’s gotten too big to monitor effectively. This incident shows that Internal Controls have become ineffective at stopping Insider Threats.
I hope that he will avail himself of the prison’s exercise facilities in between being passed around by Bubba & Company
The boys at the BTJT Deli (Home of the WORLD FAMOUS Cockmeat Sammich) are gonna have fun with him… especially after they get him ready for his cover shoot for “Prison Bride Weekly”,
Dude looks like he sweats when he eats an ice cream sandwich.
I think when we start prosecuting people for treason with only the death penalty on the table and then follow through to execution, some of this shit will stop.
Only if we install a fast lane to execution. A wait of 25-30 years to carry out a sentence is no deterrent.
Bingo.
This fucker should be shot at sunrise!
Hanged. Shooting is too honorable for this traitor.
Hanged and buried under a septic tank to be forever forgotten, he doesn’t look even remotely remorseful.
IN…not under
I’m not seeing a posted link to a Fox News story on Martin. The one under consideration is probably here:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/04/ex-nsa-contractor-to-plead-guilty-to-breathtaking-heist-top-secret-data.html
Something interesting about Martin’s case is that, although he was apparently caught with massive amounts of data and documents, the available evidence is somewhat thin that he was a source of leaked information such as the NSA’s own hacking tools. One of his ex-wives, for example, said it’s more likely Martin was a compulsive pack rat about classified data. There’s also been no demonstrable monetary gain.
Although such considerations might not matter. According to some reports, the penalty for stealing a single page of classified material can be up to 10 years in prison.
Do the math. If a page of typewritten text amounts to 2,000 bytes of data, and Martin made off with 50 terabytes, that means in theory he could be sentenced to 250 million years of hard time.
Yea but with the liberal sentencing policies he probably wouldn’t get more than 210 million years! Bwaaaaa
He can always use the Hilary defense. He didn’t INTEND for there to be that much classified material in his possession.
Yep … I doubt he would any more than 75 million years …
He was probably putting it on his server in the bathroom of his condo in Colorado…
My question and believe me I know this is a naive one.
So say he got away with just walking that stuff out the door.
Did no one notice any of this material missing?
No idea on the data side, but I could see the hard copies as things that should have (and were thus assumed to be) shredded, burned, turned into pinatas, or whatever they do with classified papers.
I had to do several investigations involving potential SCI compromise, and this was back in the era of floppy disks. In each case, someone had taken shit home and stored it there for some reason. Usually, but not always, that reason was for studying up for some qualification and they wanted to do that in their pajamas. In no case was there any perceived espionage intent. All, as I recall, did jail time (but I suppose if they had a lawyer who argued they were simply extremely careless as opposed to grossly negligent, they would not have). Seems this dude could have been another weird hoarder, 21st century style.
That excuse does make a “plausibly deniable” cutout for a third party to peruse the unsecure stuff.
Like no agent ever thought of -that- ….
So we have Reality Winner, Snowjob, and this dick…all contractors. It might be wise to revisit the whole outsourcing of Secret Squirrel activities.
Just pointing out that the clearance process for govt civilian emploees is not much different – having gone through both.
Govys can be as stupid/careless/treacherous as the contractors if they put their minds to it.
True…been through it myself.
But how much money is the government really saving by bringing in contractors? Or, is it really all about someone greasing palms and getting rich to snoop on the rest of us?
Should have donated to the Clinton Global Initiative when we asked you to
Hillary Clinton
Two words:
1. Drinking
2. Problem
I take one look at that remorseless face of his and truly wonder why nobody has ever smashed it with a shovel or sledge hammer.
and meanwhile Hillary, the harridan, skates. Had I done same as she did in handling classified in the Navy, and some of it very classified, I would STILL be in NAVCONBRIG.
Proves if you are high enough on the ladder you can do whatever and walk away not a scratch.
Need to get back to notes from home and stool samples to vet these turds. Not to mention running blue on blue counter espionage ops like honey pot traps, or poke his ideological leanings with a little boost of Dr. Nostradamus’s ketamine NO.9 in his FANTA orange sodie pop and a visit from some knuckle draggers who specialize in quid pro quo reciprocal idea exchanges for some HUMINT snuggle time. See what these lefty university spineless jellyfish are about. Hoarder my ass!Those types of characteristics go off like Willy Pete hot pockets in your panties. No way they aren’t checking that box with the fat red crayon.The shit is all too easy. Fuck they visit their houses and friends & relatives too & see if you’re living with aunt Ophelia Pearl and Myrtle Fern and their 76 feral free range zero litter box street cats, rats, roaches, in a radon laden basement with black mold crown molding and slime mold baseboards with the matching trendy booger lined chair rails. If the 1971′ olds delta 88 next to the 70′ turd Brown four door Ford LTD with the green moss faux landau top isn’t a give away maybe look to the 28 years of collected better homes and gardens magazine that are stacked from floor to ceiling and newspapers lining the EVERYWHERE from the 40’s to verify this is a proud product of the shallow end of the bicameral mental gene pool. I dunno I’m just now recovering from my own feces flinging troglodyte activities. So what do I know? Aut pax aut bellum.
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One reason the government uses so many contractors is that government salaries are too low to attract the best and the brightest in the computer world