Why the security concerns now and not with the thousands of employees with potentially similar access? NOW it's a concern because the idea occurred to people that who might have access to data is important? Imo the faux outrage is so far beyond rational that it turns people away. Let's have a reasonable discussion about data access and controls, and whether they are being followed, rather than some reflexive response based on political points of view.
> Why the security concerns now and not with the thousands of employees with potentially similar access?
Because there aren't "thousands of employees" with this kind of access, and few people who have had it were thoroughly vetted.
> Let's have a reasonable discussion about data access and controls, and whether they are being followed, rather than some reflexive response based on political points of view.
We are well beyond partisan "points of view" here. This isn't really about policy, this is about the law and whether or not anyone has any interest in enforcing it.
Because there aren't "thousands of employees" with this kind of access, and few people who have had it were thoroughly vetted.
I mean, we've had multiple classified info leaks by low-level employees, most recently a 20 year old Massachusetts Air National Guard member who leaked hundreds of top secret Pentagon docs on the Ukraine War to his bros on the "Thug Shaker Central" Discord channel. Some hundreds of thousands of people had access to this stuff. If there are specific subsets of documents with very limited need-to-know access, you need to be clear about which documents and how many people have access.
We are well beyond partisan "points of view" here. This isn't really about policy, this is about the law and whether or not anyone has any interest in enforcing it.
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution: "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." The law is the president has ultimate authority over the executive branch and e.g. all classified information and can disclose it to anyone he wants. Obviously there are certain asterisks and exceptions to this authority, so if you want to be specific about which laws being violated please go ahead, but painting with a broad brush that individuals who have been delegated authority by the president are breaking the law by accessing executive branch information is unserious.
The claim that no one in America is enforcing the law anymore is extremely grave and should not be made lightly by a civic minded person.
Because controls ensures that people stay honest. I worked on a treasury system for a significant (not federal) organization. By design, I couldn’t even see aspects of the system directly.
When you give people unfettered access to sensitive information, your risk is exponentially greater. Those people can be compromised, tricked, engage in fraud, be victims or frauds, etc.
Worse, because access is unfettered and controls bypassed, you may never know.
The security concerns are addressed in the article. The answer to your question is in there, and your comment is easily interpreted as the same reflexive outrage you think others are guilty of.
Uhh the other employees did go through the proper reviews? That’s why they are employees. That’s why there isn’t outrage at people who were hired and vetted for their jobs.
