Despite all the cognitive abilities at their disposal, human beings have, time and time again, shown a tendency to make mistakes. Now, you can argue that these mistakes actually do a lot in making us better over time, but we cannot overlook how they also go on to cause some irreparable damage on some occasions. The latter fact, in particular, would inspire us to look for a defensive cover, and we, on our part, will find that cover once we bring dedicated regulatory bodies into the fold. Having a well-defined authority across each and every area was a game-changer, as it wasted no time in compensating for a lot of our errors. However, the utopia was notably short-lived, and if are being honest, it was all because of technology. You see, with technology and its layered nature taking over the scene, everyone suddenly had an unprecedented shot at exploiting other people’s missteps. This expectantly overwhelmed our regulatory bodies and sent us back to square one. Fortunately, though, the authorities didn’t buckle down. They instead made a strong comeback, and they did so by making an ally out of technology rather than an enemy. The tweak will end up making a trajectory-altering impact. In fact, the stated power shift has been pretty evident over some recent cases, and now, one more joins the list.
A jury in New York has formally convicted ex-Central Intelligence Agency engineer, Joshua Schulte, in response to what was the biggest leak across CIA’s history. To give you some context here, Schulte was found guilty of leaking the Vault 7, which is basically a set of classified documents and files that contained tactics CIA would use to surveil someone through mediums like smartphone and connected TVs. According to certain reports, the Vault 7 also included a detailed lowdown on US government malware, viruses, remote-control software, and many other sensitive details. Interestingly enough, it was Schulte only who created these tools in the first place, but when he resigned from the agency back in 2016, he used a backdoor password to access the cache on offline servers. After picking up all the files he needed, the former CIA engineer ingeniously covered his tracks by editing and deleting the relevant activity logs. However, some security lapses on his part, such as storing passwords on his phone that could be used to access his encrypted storage, would give investigators every bit of evidence they needed. While their first attempt at getting Schulte punished did end in a mistrial, but he is finally convicted on all nine charges that were pitted against him following the investigation.
“Today’s verdict affirms that maintaining the security of our nation’s cyber capabilities is of the utmost importance. It’s critical to the security of the American people, and it’s critical to our advantage against adversaries abroad. As set forth in the trial, unauthorized disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm,” said Tammy Thorp, CIA spokesperson.
Talk about why Schulte committed such a grave act, he claimed that it was his revenge for not being heard over his complaints about the agency’s work environment.