The FBI Inspector General has issued a scathing report about the Bureau's lackadaisical attitude towards protecting sensitive data:
The FBI has made serious slip-ups in how it processes and destroys electronic storage media seized as part of investigations, according to an audit by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.
Drives containing national security data, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act information and documents classified as Secret were routinely unlabeled, opening the potential for it to be either lost or stolen, the report [PDF] addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray states.
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The OIG report notes that it found boxes of hard drives and removable storage sitting open and unattended for "days or even weeks" because they were only sealed once the boxes were full. This potentially allows any of the 395 staff and contractors with access to the facility to have a rummage around.
There is a photo of the storage facility at the link, and it can only be described as horrifying.
I guess they are too busy spying on regime enemies to, you know, take security very seriously.
Chain of custody? What chain of custody?
ReplyDeleteThis appears to be grounds to challenge every single case brought before a judge using any of this hardware.
This is nothing new. The FBI's records have been horribly unsecure for decades. And the FBI's vaunted Crime Lab has been full of partisan politics and results-for-payola for, well, decades.
ReplyDeleteBut let one ex-government official follow the actual record storage laws and he gets raided.
'Lie' to the FBI and it's prison time for you, even though there's no actual proof of the lie because the FBI doesn't tape interviews or even take notes during interviews.
That's how it goes with Affirmative Action hires, aka DEI.
ReplyDelete