It is not hard to lose sight of the fact that data leaker Edward Snowden actually worked for Booz Allen, a private contracted company, not in fact for the National Security Agency. Snowden, as everyone knows, walked away from his Booz Allen job with more than a few top secret documents. Since then a “Where’s Waldo Snowden” theme has been the big story angle here. Constitutional questions and the wisdom of subcontracting out defense and intelligence-gathering tasks to for-profit companies are issues only starting to be looked at. Meaningful change, such as resulted from the Senate Church Committee hearings, seems a long-shot.
But what have the consequences been for Booz Allen and their Gulf oil spill-sized security leaks? Well, now months after the news broke, the NSA and Booz Allen still haven’t accurately accessed exactly what data was taken or how much. They assume it was a lot of information or perhaps even everything. Early on one insider revealed to the Washington Post the estimated size of the loss:
“They think he copied so much stuff — that almost everything that place does, he has,” [referring to the NSA, where Snowden worked as a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton]
The company’s effort to get some distance from Snowden is underway and may be paying off in the short term. In recent remarks Booz Allen CEO Ralph W. Shrader tries to walk away from it all.
“… He [Snowden] was not a Booz Allen person and he did not share our values.” Shrader continued. “We cannot and will not let him [Snowden] define us.”
Well of course not. Why should the fact that a low level employee walked away with “almost everything the place does” be a defining event. BA stock and profits are up!
At least for now the market has not punished the company or harmed the bottom line. Unbelievably in the latest fiscal quarter Booz Allen reports that the stock is up. (Booz Allen is majority-owned by private equity firm Carlyle Group.) Profits are headed up too, according to earnings reports, by 13.5 percent to $70.3 million for the three months ending in June. Good growth was attributed to “better cost management.”
Company officials basking in the warm glow of profits and a rising stock price report confidently that the massive security breech will not affect the company’s ability to land new government contracts. (Ninety-nine percent of the company’s revenue is from government contracts.) In his comments CEO Shrader speaks with emotion (or perhaps choking back tears or more likely stifling laughter) when relating the expressions of support Booz Allen is getting from government clients
[…] he has “been touched by the words of support from those in the business community and especially from our clients, showing that our long-term clients know the kind of company we are.”
I can only imagine what the three top NSA officials (Booz Allen’s long-term clients and perhaps future board members and CEO’s) getting grilled while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday thought about Shrader. The company was well out of the glare of bright lights.
Somehow no one seems to want to blame it on the Booz.
is that in this technological age, he was able to do any of this:
The capability exists for anyone using a computer to be surrveilled by the network they are logged onto and all activity can be viewed & downloaded.
This means you and I. We are all susceptible to our ISP or LAN (both networks) watching & downloading all of our activity through the administrator. Although there are some safeguards that can be employed it is not easy to escape this trap.
That Snowden & all of these “spies” are allowed unfettered access to our activity, fellow citizens – the activity of ordinary citizens presumed guilty of “something” is an outrage. With Microsoft even opening the backdoor to their servers & going as far as handing our passwords to the government is beyond criminal. And the list of others is very long.
The bluff, bluster & bullshit coming from our elected officials & howls of “traitor” is a huge laugh and a big joke. It translates into “guilty as charged”.
The software manufacturers & telecommunication vendors sharing their bed with legislative, executive & judicial branch are the real traitors — ALL, including Obama who railed against GWBs secret surveillance program & promised to end it. He’s as bad if not worse than Nixon because as Nixon, apparently has the support of his trusting base to take away our rights and impose their brand of tyrranny just as the Nixon administration did.
http://www.wired.com/threatlev…
http://news.nationalpost.com/2…
May they all rot.