How are many computer security systems coopted? It’s not brute force hacking, but people writing down passwords, or giving them to coworkers.

These reports indicate that the NSA has serious security issues with its contract workforce, and that steps must be taken to enforce the security protocols that were in place but disregarded, or strengthen and enforce lax regulations.

I wouldn’t be shocked to learn of similar problems with other agencies or the DoD or DHS since they too operate with significant numbers of contract workers and lots of classified information floating around.

The thing is that none of this excuses Snowden.

If anything it shows he purposefully manipulated the system to get at data he wasn’t entitled to. It’s theft of classified information. It’s espionage.

And then he ran off to Hong Kong on his way to Moscow.

That doesn’t make him a hero. That makes him a criminal under US law for stealing classified data, methods, means, and techniques.