In late October, FBI and Army counterintelligence agents arrested a 22-year-old U.S. Army specialist assigned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. Specialist William Colton Millay of Owensboro, Kentucky, is accused of allegedly transmitting military information to an individual he thought was an intelligence agent working for a foreign government. Investigators claimed Specialist Colton “believed (this information) could be used to the advantage of a foreign nation.” In addition to having communications with and transmitting information to someone he thought was an foreign intelligence agent, Colton is also accused of soliciting fellow soldiers to obtain classified information and items so that they could be given the individual. Investigators are not releasing details on the type of information the soldier is accused of transmitting.
The arrest comes in the wakes of one of the largest leaks of sensitive government material ever in us history, when Private Bradley Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of Department Of State diplomatic cables and gave them to the information activist group, Wikileaks. The release of the cables by Wikileaks was a major loss for the US government, whose unfiltered opinions of world leaders led to embarrassment and a weakening of diplomatic efforts around the world. Private Manning is currently detained in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and is awaiting trial on charges of transferring classified data onto his personal computer, and sending defense information to an unauthorized source.
While there is reportedly no connection between Wikileaks and the arrest of Specialist Millay, the two cases reveal the growing internal threat to US national security computer networks from personnel who use their clearances to leak or transmit sensitive and classified information. The intelligence community has recently been developing a number of tools to counter this threat, including software to spot users with suspicious activity and even planting dummy documents to lure leakers and spies.
For cleared job seekers, these new concerns about internal security will likely trickle down into the hiring process. Employers know full well that a leak from their company is a scarlet letter in terms of getting defense and intelligence contracts. As such, it is very possible that contractors and recruiters will start being extra vigilant about clearance violations — even minor ones — by potential hires.
Mike Jones is a researcher, writer, and analyst on national and international security. He lives in the DC area.
