Bad PR

Booz Allen Hamilton, the giant government contractor, has to survive bad PR again with a former employee found to have 50 terabytes of National Security Agency information in his possession.  The individual has been arrested, but that doesn’t help Booz or the NSA in determining how much of the massive amount of material reached the public or foreign powers.  Booz and the NSA must now review security procedures to determine where one or the other, or both, slipped up by allowing the individual to keep a top secret clearance.  Booz can’t afford another major breach like this one.  Even if the individual was hoarding information and never released any of it, the danger to national security was huge.  The major question for both the consulting firm and the agency is how to spot rogue employees before they damage security.  Background checks are in depth and thorough but that doesn’t tell one whether a person will remain trustworthy.  This is an area where a bit of paranoia is a proper attitude.