Top Defense Contractor Left Sensitive Pentagon Files on Amazon Server With No Password
Sensitive files tied to a US military project were leaked by a multi-billion dollar firm once described as the world’s most profitable spy operation, Gizmodo has confirmed.
A cache of more than 60,000 files was discovered last week on a publicly accessible Amazon server, including passwords to a US government system containing sensitive information, and the security credentials of a lead senior engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the nation’s top intelligence and defense contractors. What’s more, the roughly 28GB of data contained at least a half dozen unencrypted passwords belonging to government contractors with Top Secret Facility Clearance.
The exposed credentials could potentially grant their holders further access to repositories housing similarly sensitive government data.
Countless references are made in the leaked files to the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which in March awarded Booz Allen an $86 million defense contract. Often referred to as the Pentagon’s “mapmakers,” the combat support agency works alongside the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Intelligence Agency to collect and analyze geospatial data gathered by spy satellites and aerial drones.
The NGA on Tuesday confirmed the leak to Gizmodo while stressing that no classified information had been disclosed. “NGA takes the potential disclosure of sensitive but unclassified information seriously and immediately revoked the affected credentials,” an agency spokesperson said. The Amazon server from which the data was leaked was “not directly connected to classified networks,” the spokesperson noted.
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Top defense contractor left sensitive Pentagon files on Amazon server with no password https://t.co/esHrpynz36 pic.twitter.com/fB6D7OxaMG
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) May 31, 2017
I don’t know why we even bother to try and keep anything secret anymore. Incompetence and corruption are so rampant in government I hardly see the point.
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