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After FBI agents arrested Jack Teixeira, identified by US authorities as a prime suspect for publishing hundreds of classified secret documents, the Pentagon prepares new controls to avoid such a serious violation.
According to the previous investigation, Teixeira gained access through security breaches at a Massachusetts Air National Guard base.
Airman 1st Class Jack Texeira, 21, is accused of leaking the highly classified military documents in a chat room on Discord, a social media platform that started out as a hangout for gamers.
US @SecDef Lloyd Austin issued new instructions for how military personnel and contractors are allowed to handle classified information after sensitive military planning documents were leaked online earlier this year. https://t.co/XJU8WY0Vqx
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) July 5, 2023
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a memo released Wednesday, ordered that all department secure rooms where classified information is stored and accessed meet intelligence community standards for supervision and monitoring.
Changes require higher levels of physical security, additional controls to ensure documents are not improperly deleted and the assignment of top-secret control officers to monitor users.
Austin also said that compartmentalized sensitive information facilities, or SCIFs, should be monitored to prevent the use of electronic devices inside rooms. That effort would include “appropriate electronic device detection systems and mitigation measures” within secure areas, according to the memo.
US justice charges 21-year-old with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal of classified information and defense materials.
For said charges, Teixeira could go to prison for up to 15 years: 10 years for the first and a maximum of 5 for the second.
According to authorities, Teixeira, who enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, began sharing military secrets by first writing classified documents and then removing classified documents from the base and taking them home to photograph.
Teixeira worked as a “cyber transportation systems specialist,” essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks, giving him wide access to the armed forces’ classified computer networks.
The case highlighted potential vulnerabilities the department faces as it works to safeguard classified information at military installations around the world. that have different security procedures and layers of protection
According to data from ABC News, an estimated 4 million people have US security clearance, according to a 2017 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Of those, approximately 1.3 million are authorized to access top-secret information.
Keep reading:
– Jack Texeira is charged with 7 counts in connection with the Internet leak of secret US documents.
– Jack Teixeira, the young man who leaked military documents had a private arsenal and was tempted to commit a massacre
– How a 21-year-old military man of low rank was able to gain access to “top secret” Pentagon documents