A newspaper says it has discovered secret data belonging to the U.S. government on the Internet. The paper said it managed to find a list of more than 2,500 CIA agents, some of whom are still working under cover, as well as details on several "secret" facilities.
The Chicago Tribune reported that it managed to create a list of 2,653 CIA agents using Internet services that compile public data freely available to any fee-paying subscriber.
At the request of the CIA the paper did not reveal the names of the agents, many of whom work under cover. The journalists also managed to locate two dozen “secret" CIA facilities.
A CIA spokeswoman admitted that the growth of the Internet had made the task of protecting secret information much more complex. She added that measures are being taken to radically reduce the amount of secret data available on the Internet, but refused to say how the information got there in the first place and what was being done to remedy the situation.
The Chicago Tribune article was headlined: "Internet blows CIA cover." It began: "She is 52 years old, married, grew up in the Kansas City suburbs and now lives in Virginia, in a new three-bedroom house." The article went on to explain that the online service described the woman in question as a CIA employee who has been assigned to several U.S. embassies in Europe. The CIA confirmed that she was a covert operative.
As well as the list of agents, the paper also identified facilities in Chicago, northern Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington state. It said some were heavily guarded, though others were made to look like private residences.
When one intelligence official was asked to clarify how such information could find its way on to the Internet, he replied: "I don't have a great explanation, quite frankly." When the same official was asked to comment on whether terrorists were capable of accessing the same sort of information, he said: "I don't know whether al-Qaeda could do this, but the Chinese could."
“Every kind of organization faces the problem of protecting its confidential data. But when it is on a state level, it becomes a question of survival. The FBI recently announced the formation of an internal IT security service which will combat insiders and prevent data leaks. I think the CIA will have to go down the same road," says Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: BBC
