Edward Snowden Not the Only Insider Threat

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden single-handedly shocked the U.S. intelligence community by leaking reams of information to the news media, but the insider threat is much more widespread, said Maj. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, USA, the new commanding general, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Gordon, Georgia.

“Who would imagine one person could have as much impact on this nation as he did,” Gen. Fogarty said, referring to Snowden. “And we were not prepared for that. We were not looking for that. That’s an asymmetric attack that occurred, and it’s happening every single day.”

Gen. Fogarty formerly served as the commander of the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command, where, he said, “We did a lot of counterintelligence investigations of a lot of people, soldiers and civilians, who were actually giving our information to the enemy. There’s a lot more of that going on than you would imagine,” he said. “All it takes now, as we found out, is someone with a thumb drive, someone who can social engineer an email to enable espionage. Now, in an instant, with a flash drive, I can download the most sensitive information that gives our enemies an advantage.”

It is much easier now to detect an insider threat, he added, but the response is often too slow. “We have systems now being deployed for the insider threat. We really have the ability to detect threats at a digital speed, but our response, quite often, is analogue,” he reported, while speaking at AFCEA TechNet Augusta. While an insider threat may be detected immediately, he continued, it leads to many questions, such as who is responsible for a response, who should the incident be reported to, what should the response be, what is authorized, etc. “This thing drags out. Meanwhile, the plans to the F-35 have been exfiltrated.”