Analyst charged with hacking into classified data

Many intelligence experts warn that the worst threats come from within, not from the outside. And that certainly is the case with this latest incident involving an analyst at a Defense Department spy satellite agency who is facing federal hacking charges.

Brian Keith Montgomery is charged with allegedly surfing through a top-secret system used in a classified terrorism investigation involving the FBI and U.S. Army. Montgomery worked on a covert program for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency--the spy agency in charge of satellite and aerial image collection--according to an article in wired.com. He allegedly saw a message that "provided significant detail about a classified operation" unrelated to his job, according to an affidavit filed by a Pentagon investigator.

The government charged that Montgomery ignored a security warning in the message he saw, and twice logged into a classified system used in a terrorism investigation.

His motives are unclear, but Montgomery told investigators that he didn't see the online warning saying only officials participating in the operation were allowed to use the password to gain access. And he told them he thought he was allowed to log in to the system. "It was not until I was called on the carpet, that I went back and read the warning notice in the message traffic," Montgomery allegedly told investigators.

He's charged with a single count of gaining unauthorized access to a protected computer or exceeding authorized access. But this is just one more case where training is everything and failure to follow the rules can result in serious consequences.

For more on this hacking case:
- check out this wired.com article

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