Do you find it concerning that there have been so many incidents of security and classified documents being leaked recently?

14 comments

1. It’s probably a sanctioned distraction from something more serious. 😊

2. Yes, BUT part of the problem is over-classification. There is a whole lot of info that becomes classified that does not need to be.
   If everything is classified, than more people need access to that level of info in order to be effective at even some of the, what’s the word, (not important but that the best I have first thing in the AM) roles. With more people comes more risk.

3. Not really.

   I just want to know more about the “the government has UFOs and alien bodies” stuff. I wish we would get some better leaks about that

4. “Recently.”

   From the Rosenbergs to Aldrich Ames there have been *vastly* larger breaches of security and confidential information than this recent stuff.

5. Yes, it bothers me. Clearly access to classified information is far too broad.

   >random guy in the army leaked documents

   Air National Guard. He was an IT guy who had ZERO need to know for any of that. And he had been warned three times by his superiors to stop surfing among the classified documents.

   1. How does a no-needs guy get warned THREE TIMES with no consequences?
   2. WTF did he have access to that information anyway?

   (FYI, two of his superiors have been suspended pending investigations. His entire unit was releaved of it’s intelligence processing duties.)

6. It’s much easier to distribute information than ever before. 50 years ago you’d have to physically move boxes of paper, now you can take photos on your phone and send them anywhere in an instant.

   Sure, it bothers me. I’m no security expert but perhaps too many people have access to too many things and are incentivized by either greed or other factors.

7. No

8. Stop putting right wing schizo zoomers in close proximity to classified information

9. Recent ones don’t really concern me too much

   Foreign spies in the government would concern me more

   Certain leaks are good gives more transparency to the government

10. General McChrystal had some thoughts on this. He said the threat of leakers (Bradley Manning was an example he gave) was not sufficient reason to compartmentalize and limit access when hunting a terrorist like Al Zarqawi. He had regular briefings with hundreds of people, and in the end they got Al Zarqawi.

    Leaks will always occur. Sometimes they benefit the public (Ellsberg, Snowden) and sometimes they harm national security (Ames, Hanssen). I’m not overly bothered because the percentage of people who betray the public’s trust is very small compared to those who keep it.

11. I’m more concerned about how many secrets the government keeps from its people.

12. Honestly, I assume this has always been happening. We’re just only hearing about more now.

    So no more concerned than I usually am with the cesspool of a bureaucracy that is our government.

13. Wayyyyy too much stuff is classified (to some degree) without needing to be, and as a result, wayyyyy too many people are given various levels of security clearance they ideally wouldn’t need (and shouldn’t have).

14. Not really. Especially when the problem seems to be more that they make every god damned document classified.