Why it was easy for Edward Snowden to impersonate top NSA officials

Always keep an eye on the IT guy...

System administrator
(Image credit: Courtesy Shutterstock)

On Thursday, U.S. intelligence sources told NBC News that Edward Snowden used his position as a system administrator for the NSA to impersonate the electronic identities of top agency officials, which he used to gain access to 20,000 classified government documents.

"This is why you don't hire brilliant people for jobs like this," the official told NBC News. "You hire smart people. Brilliant people get you in trouble."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Keith Wagstaff is a staff writer at TheWeek.com covering politics and current events. He has previously written for such publications as TIME, Details, VICE, and the Village Voice.