Secrecy and Security News, May 2016

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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: June 2016

May 2016

CIA to detail secret Cold War actions by Julian Hattem, The Hill, May 31. "The CIA is planning to offer details about four previously undisclosed covert actions conducted during the Cold War, a federal advisory committee declared in a report."
Panama Papers May Inspire More Big Leaks, if Not Reform by Scott Shane, New York Times, May 29. "It was the latest and biggest in a series of recent megaleaks, establishing the large-scale, unauthorized disclosure of government and corporate secrets as a contagious phenomenon that is unlikely to go away."
Obama's cyber 'state of emergency' yields no quick sanctions by Sean Lyngaas, Federal Computer Week, May 26. "In April 2015, President Barack Obama declared foreign cyber threats a national emergency and gave the Treasury Department enhanced powers to target adversaries in cyberspace."
ISOO Rejects Complaint, Affirms CIA Classification of Senate Torture Report, letter from ISOO Acting Director William Cira to Katherine Hawkins, Openthegovernment.org, May 13. "My review determined that the Order provides the CIA with the authority to classify and continue to classify the specific details associated with the Detention and Interrogation Program that divulges the identities of officials and locations of intelligence activity."
Feds Will (Finally) Mine Social Media for Background Checks by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, Motherboard, May 13. "After years of development, the US government has come up with an official policy to mine the public social media accounts of potential employees during background checks."
Clinton emails: State evolves on when diplomacy is classified by Josh Gerstein, Politico, May 12. "The type of diplomatic information that accounts for about 90 percent of the messages now deemed classified in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email account is 'routinely' and properly circulated in unclassified channels, the State Department said in a letter sent to the Senate earlier this month."
New details on IC's insider threat patrol by Chase Gunter, Federal Computer Week, May 12. "Although one of the federal government's cross-agency priority goals is improving automated insider threat detection, progress has been slow."
Expert: Alleged 'Inaccuracies' Can't Justify 28 Pages Secrecy by Brian P. McGlinchey, 28pages.org, May 11. "In recent weeks, the director of the CIA and the co-chairmen and executive director of the 9/11 Commission have claimed that 28 redacted pages from a congressional inquiry into 9/11 contain 'unvetted,' 'uncorroborated' and 'inaccurate' information."
The Classified Home Movies of Guantanamo Bay by Sam Biddle, Gawker, May 5. "At the Defense Media Activity, a little-known and oddly named office in Ft. Meade, Maryland, that provides 'news and information to U.S. forces worldwide,' there are thousands of classified 'educational' films about the American military--including a huge trove of secret home movies from Gitmo."
NSA Plan to Trash Employee Complaint Files Raises Concerns for Some by Aliya Sternstein, NextGov, May 4. "The files set to be destroyed are created by the NSA Ombudsman program, a low-profile office that resolves conflicts between personnel."
Obama Administration Using Civil Sanctions to Go After Leakers by Jacob Gershman, Wall Street Journal, May 4. "The Obama administration is using more than criminal laws to crackdown on national security leaks: It's wielding civil sanctions against government officials suspected of disclosing classified information."
Congressional Report: Supreme Court Nominee Garland Would Be No Scalia by Jess Bravin, Wall Street Journal, May 4. "Congress does not typically release its research service reports; the Garland report, like many others, was obtained and posted online by the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists."
The IC Can't Even Decide What Is Classified in Hillary's Emails But They're Attempting To Do Same on the Internet by Marcy Wheeler, Emptywheel, May 3. "Perhaps most interesting, though, is Litt's reference to the development of 'automated systems... that will assist in identifying classified information published on the Internet'."
Feds pushed administrative punishment for leakers by Julian Hattem, The Hill, May 3. "The Obama administration has given orders to pursue administrative punishments against leakers rather than criminal indictments in some cases, indicating that the government's efforts to quiet leakers may have been more complex than previously understood."
Hillary Clinton private email server problems split opinions by David J. Lynch and Courtney Weaver, Financial Times, May 1. "Mrs. Clinton's handling of her emails demonstrated bad judgment, but probably fell short of an offence that warranted indictment, several experts said."

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Updated June 3, 2016