Secrecy and Security News
Newer News: September 2018
August 2018
- Governments want your smart devices to have stupid security flaws by Steven Aftergood, Nature, August 28. "Hardly a day now passes without reports of a massive breach of computer security and the theft or compromise of confidential data. That digital nightmare is about to get much worse, asserts security technologist Bruce Schneier in Click Here to Kill Everybody."
- Accounting Board Sides with Secrecy Hawks on Classified Defense Spending by Charles S. Clark, Government Executive, August 28. "A little-heralded accounting authority has for the first time waded into the debate over whether most of the government's secret spending on national security should be made public."
- How a Lawsuit Could Check Trump's Power Over Security Clearances by Russell Berman, The Atlantic, August 24. "Can the president restrict a person's access to classified material for any reason he wants? It may take a claim from former CIA Director John Brennan to find out."
- The Pentagon's New Stealth Bookkeeping by Mark Thompson, POGO Blog, August 24. "The Defense Department's finances have been an unauditable black hole for decades. But as the military has struggled mightily in recent years to remove the cobwebs from its books, it has run into another problem: where to hide its work on classified programs?"
- Trump Admin Authorizes 'Irregular Warfare' Operations Across Globe by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, August 23. "The Trump administration is undertaking efforts to grow and advance the U.S.'s 'low-visibility, irregular warfare' operations across the globe, according to a new directive issued by the Pentagon."
- Statement from U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine Regarding Sentencing for Reality Winner, August 23. "The sentence rendered today is the longest received by a defendant for an unauthorized disclosure of national defense information to the media."
- Federal Government Contractor Sentenced for Removing and Transmitting Classified Materials to a News Outlet, Justice Dept news release, August 23. "Reality Winner, 26, of Augusta, Georgia, was sentenced today to five years and three months in prison for removing classified national defense material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet."
- Access Denied: Behind Trump's Review of Security Clearances by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press, August 16. "President has said he's yanking former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance and threatened to do the same to other current and former officials tied to the federal investigation into Russian election interference."
- Trump Fires Back at 'Vicious' Omarosa Manigault Newman by Peter Nicholas, Wall Street Journal, August 13. "President seeks to discredit ex-reality television star who secretly recorded conversation with him."
- The dos and don'ts of the Situation Room by Tara McKelvey, BBC News, August 13. "Former adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman surreptitiously recorded a conversation that she says took place in the Situation Room. Here's an insider's guide to the inner sanctum of the White House -- and why this incident amounts to a violation of security protocol."
Older News: July 2018