all the info needed to blackmail any security-cleared person, anytime

and thus the security state once again sows the seeds of its own undoing

figure this one out, where you now can't trust anybody who has gotten a security clearance, including the people making the hiring decisions

given the importance and impact of this release, question needs to be asked why it wasn't secured better

This is a MASSIVE failure.

I once was on a contract that required eventual security clearance - when I saw this form I quit. Lost a lot of money but I'm sure as hell glad I didn't fill it out.

Anyone know if elected representatives need to fill out this form? If so, um...

If you've already told the government "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I did drugs", then it's hard to argue you'd be terrified of people finding out you did drugs.

that your spouse did drugs, since they glean information from your cohabitants and your spouse isn't protected from losing their job if the information comes out, this is a treasure trove.

There is no way to make this insignificant. You can try, but really?

It isn't embarrassing for people to learn that you had to go to rehab or something at 19 for drug addiction? Or that your kid did?

Excuse me for vehemently stating "that doesn't fly".

Snowden had nothing to do with this.

but as long as they can try to make him a scapegoat for their own incompetence, some "anonymous" official will still be attributing everything evil in this world.

The timing when the Snowden blaming started is interested, because the other report came out on Friday evening.

Nah, no coincidence there.

Very good info, mary.

Sorry to link on yours. I don't usually do that. Just pretty important and apropos

The more people that discuss this, the better! Link anytime

And if you should want to, please feel free to do the same.

Wth has government IT been doing? Wtf good is our almighty, all spying surveillance agencies been doing besides spying on us?

How embarrassing.

Look at the last link that I added which explains how and why it was all so vulnerable.

Ipviking.com to be exact.

Even a box of rocks could see there's a warzone out in cyberland. Lots of hits to .gov and .mil and a dozen other interesting destinations. I'm sure the fed has even better ways to sniff and did almost nothing!

Disgusting. Incredible.

Absolute incompetence.

If a nation wants your information, they will get it. They have the resources to develop attacks that will break any security you employ.

It used to be enough to have an "air gap" - if you don't connect your computers to the Internet, they can't be attacked. Then Stuxnet quite vividly showed that wasn't true.

why they shouldn't have the information they have on the American public because they can't secure their own data, much less give a crap about everyone else.

The information they have on the American public is phone records. AT&T, Verizon and the rest are nowhere near as secure as the NSA. I would be astounded to discover other countries don't have the same records via hacking the phone companies.

For a variety of reasons, we're entering an "end of privacy" era. We're happily turning over our shopping history for convenience (Amazon) or a small discount (your grocery store) or the basic implementation of the service (phone records).

Doesn't mean I am.

And to equate my grocery list with the information on Form 86 is so laughable, I don't know where to start.

It's only filed by people seeking security clearances. As a result, it isn't the government gathering information on "All Americans" as you were talking about.

As for shopping history, it's an example. You are tracked, legally, with your permission, all the time.

Oh well, I feel much better that people in charge of secured information are the only people that can be blackmailed and the fact that I spent $5 for maxi-pads remains relatively secure.

Your maxi-pad purchases are utterly insecure. There have been many hacks of those systems.

As for blackmail, we are talking about people who have said "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I did drugs" directly to the government. It's gonna be hard to blackmail them over drug use.

do not know what information is revealed on Form 86. That's the only excuse I can come up with for you to make this argument.

Are you more comfortable with that information being in the hands of Chinese hackers than you are with Albertson's knowing what you bought last week, or hell anyone knowing what you bought all last year?

If so, you didn't fill out the same (exhaustive) form I did.

I also know China isn't going to be passing it around. They're going to use the data for spearphishing attacks. Leaking it to others makes it useless for that. And I can thwart spearphishing attacks.

OTOH, my supermarket card reveals my medical history. Along with what was stolen from my insurance with BC/BS. The supermarket card also reveals my location. Combine that with the data from my gas card, and now you get to track my travels. Tack on frequent flier miles, and you get my long-distance travels too. You also get all the data you are so upset about the NSA having from AT&T's data breaches. Target and Home Depot breaches also provide you with lots more data about what's in my home.

All of those systems were broken by unknown hackers. I don't know what they are trying to do with the data, and who they are selling the data to. And that very short list is just off the top of my head, and only over the last two years. And it's chock-full of personal information that could be used to hurt me in a wide variety of was.

So yeah, I'm much less concerned about China getting a copy of my SF-86's.

Geeez.......

Maybe we should give them some more money! That'll fix it!

I mean, come on, it keeps us safe.

Don't forget how limited they are to do anything.

Yes, clearly the less oversight, the better!

I submitted *less* information to obtain the large bond required to work in the financial securities industry with IT than will ever be required on an even mid-level Government security clearance.

Remember all the pseudo Cold War brinksmanship over the Sony Hack incident a few months ago? The CIA, the FBI, and every other lettered agency was looking closely at Russia, China, and North Korea then. How come this hack wasn't revealed at that time?