According to NBC, Edward Snowden stole co-workers' passwords to obtain the secretive NSA documents he leaked to The Guardian, something he has denied doing.
Turns out, Snowden was able to get a civilian employee with a higher security level clearance to type in his password on his computer terminal, which Snowden was able to retrieve in order to access the employee's classified data. That employee has since resigned.
NBC released a memo from the NSA that mentions the said employee—and a military member and contractor, but doesn't explain what their relationships were to the leaks.
“Unbeknownst to the civilian, Mr. Snowden was able to capture the password, allowing him even greater access to classified information,” the memo says.
The memo is in contrast to Snowden's denial of stealing co-workers' passwords. When Snowden was asked during a Q&A last month whether he thought about the privacy of his co-workers before stealing their information, he responded, "the Reuters report that put this out there was simply wrong.
“I never stole any passwords, nor did I trick an army of co-workers.”
[via NBC]
