Snowden used others' passwords to access documents

Iran Press TV

Fri Nov 8, 2013 5:25PM GMT

US investigators say former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden used login credentials and passwords of some fellow workers to access the classified material he later leaked to the media.

Sources close to a number of US government investigations have said Snowden persuaded fellow workers at a US National Security Agency spy base in Hawaii to give him their logins and passwords, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The sources said Snowden had told the colleagues he needed the requested information as a computer systems administrator.

The spy agency employees who gave their login details to Snowden were identified, questioned and removed from their jobs.

The revelation also indicates that inadequate security measures played a significant role in what Michael Morrell, former deputy director and acting director of the CIA, described as "the most serious" breach of classified information in US history.

Snowden's leaks about the NSA's spying activities were also described by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as "extremely damaging."

Documents disclosed by Snowden blew the lid on a number of US spying programs including one for collecting Americans' phone records and another, codenamed PRISM, for tracking the use of US-based Internet servers by all people around the world.

Other leaked documents showed that US spy agencies even conducted cyber-attacks and hacked into the computer systems of other countries' diplomatic missions.

The leaked documents also revealed that Washington has been eavesdropping on phone calls of at least 35 world leaders including that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of Europe's most influential leaders.

ISH/ISH