New NSA Rules To Prevent Future Edward Snowdens

Gen. Keith B. Alexander of the Army, the director of the National Security Agency and the United States Cyber Command, at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday. He discussed new cyberweapons and defenses of secret data. Daniel Bayer/Aspen Security Forum

N.S.A. Imposes Rules To Protect Secret Data Stored On Its Networks -- New York Times

ASPEN, Colo. — The National Security Agency has imposed new rules designed to sharply restrict the sharing and downloading of top-secret material from its computer networks after a review of how Edward J. Snowden, a former agency contractor, managed to expose several of the country’s most sensitive surveillance programs, two of the Pentagon’s most senior officials said Thursday.

First among the new procedures is a “two-man rule” — based on the model of how nuclear weapons are handled — that requires two computer systems administrators to work simultaneously when they are inside systems that contain highly classified material.

“This makes our job more difficult,” Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the head of the N.S.A. and the commander of the military’s Cyber Command, told the Aspen Security Forum, an annual meeting on security issues. He described future plans to keep the most sensitive data in a highly encrypted form, sharply limiting the number of system administrators — like Mr. Snowden — who can move data throughout the nation’s intelligence agencies and the Defense Department.

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My Comment: They clearly do not want any future Edward Snowden's leaking secrets and valuable intel. One drawback .... these new rules will probably make the NSA more inefficient in analyzing and processing the intel that they are gathering.