600,000 people - including foreign officials - have access to classified network (WP)

[somone]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/28/AR2010112804138.html

With better sharing of data comes danger
By Ellen Nakashima

... To prevent further breaches, the Pentagon announced Sunday it had ordered the disabling of a feature on its classified computer systems that allows material to be copied onto thumb drives or other removable devices. (Manning reportedly told an associate that he once copied data onto a CD labeled as Lady Gaga music.) The Defense Department will limit the number of classified systems from which material can be transferred to unclassified systems. It will also require that two people be involved in moving data from classified to unclassified systems...

The military relies on Siprnet, or Secret Internet Protocol Network, to transmit classified operational information securely and outside the commercial Internet. A former senior intelligence official said that over the past decade access to Siprnet has ballooned to about 500,000 or 600,000 people, including embassy personnel, military officials from other countries, state National Guard officials and Department of Homeland Security personnel.

That is partly in response to calls for data-sharing and partly because agencies such as the State Department wanted a way to communicate classified information without going to the expense of setting up their own network, said the former official, requesting anonymity because Siprnet's size and uses are considered a sensitive matter. He said that the answer to network breaches is not to restrict access but to improve the vetting of personnel by strengthening the clearance process. "The fact that you've got someone exfiltrating information doesn't mean you've got a technical problem," he said. "You've got a human problem." Aftergood said one major system issue that the Pentagon fixes do not address is overclassification. "A more discriminating approach to classifying information would yield a smaller volume of information requiring protection, making it easier to protect," he said.

Simon Jenkins, a British journalist who writes a column for the Guardian, wrote in a blog Sunday that the recent leaks "have blown a hole" in the framework by which governments guard their secrets. "Words on paper can be made secure, electronic archives not," he said. In the future, he added, "the only secrets will be spoken ones. Whether that is a good thing should be a topic for public debate."

[joshcryer]

1. Yep, it's unclassified data. A PFC had access.

That's PRIVATE FIRST CLASS.

A kid.

Who just got out of training.

Had access.

[JDPriestly]

2. First lesson a litigation associate learns: Never keep

a diary that you wouldn't want to have to produce in discovery. Once something written, it is no longer secret.

[MrScorpio]

3. I used to be on SIPERNET

My security clearance was good for something