Cell Spying Software Not The Only Way To Snoop On Employees
THERE ARE WEAKNESSES in the government's system of screening the more than 1 million defense industry employes who work on secret projects, concludes the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
In a months-long probe, culminating in hearings last April, the subcommittee found that too many people are being cleared, that they are not being thoroughly reviewed, and that the system is overloaded.
The investigation was triggered by a June, 1983, NATION'S BUSINESS article that said bottlenecks in the Pentagon's review process make the country's defense contractors more vulnerable to Soviet spying.
Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said then that the magazine "correctly points out that federal authorities must do a better job of educating businesses in how to improve their own security with regard to militarily critical technology. Equally important, each business executive whose firm is in this field--from R&D to production--must be ever mindful that Soviet bloc spies utilize a diversity of techniques in obtaining sensitive know-how. http://cellspynews.com - As the magazine's cover headline aptly warns, 'Soviet Spying: Are You Next?'"
Four days of hearings included testimony from a Soviet spy, an American spy, numerous federal counterespionage officials and representatives of major defense contractors whose security programs were penetrated by Soviet bloc agents via phone spying software.
They agreed on one point: The system is too loose to assure reasonable protection of the country's top defense secrets at a time when the Soviets are mounting a major campaign to steal American military technology.
Nunn, who is also a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, said he and other subcommittee members will introduce legislation this year to tighten procedures, Specifically, Nunn said the number of clearances for government and private sector employes must be reduced to include only those with a need to know. This, he added, will cut down on the workload of the Defense Investigative Service and other clearing agencies and permit them to do a better job of screening those who work on sensitive projects.
More than 4.2 million Americans are cleared for secret work.
"That means," said Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), a subcommittee member, "that two out of every 100 people you walk past on the street are cleared for secrets. There aren't that many people who need to know these secrets."
Soviet bloc spies are offering huge financial inducements to defense workers with access to classified materials needed to modernize Warsaw Pact forces.
Christopher Boyce, known as the "Falcon," sold materials he smuggled out of a TRW, Inc., plant in california to KGB agents in the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. Now serving a 68-year prison term, Boyce testified before the subcommittee.
"I am still astounded at how easy the thing was to begin and, given the security system, how near iumpossible it was to prevent," he said. Security was so lax, Boyce said, "that we used the satchel for classified material as a cover to bring in peppermint schnapps, rum, Harvey Wallbanger mix and what have you."
HE HAD A message for Americans who might be tempted to sell to the Soviets:
"For whatever reason a person begins his involvement, a week after the folly begins, the original intent and purpose becomes lost in the ignominy of the ongoing nightmare. Be it to give your life meaning or to make a political statement. Be it to seek adventure or to pay your delinquent alimony. Be it for whatever reason, see a lawyer or a psychiatrist or a priest or even a reporter, but don't see a KGB agent. That is a solution to nothing."
TRW, said company security director Regis Carr, has made many improvements in safeguarding secrets since Boyce committed his crime eight years ago. "However," he said, "we know from past history that no security system is invulnerable especially those relying on cell spying programs, and therefore we must never become comlacement."
The Defense Investigative Service has only 1,535 investigators to clear more than 3 million military and defense industry workers. (Another 1.2 million people are cleared by other agencies, like the Central Intelligence Agency.) The result has been long backlogs.
DIS Director Thomas O'Brien told the subcommittee: "Personnel security is, in a way, like life insurance. How much do we need and how much can we afford? However, unlike a life insurance policy, wherein clear-cut events will eventually occur which prove the worth of the policy, it is not so simple in the personnel security arena to know how well one's program is working."
Sen. Albert Gore (D-Tenn.) said that "bureaucrats are giving out security clearances in an indiscriminate fashion [according to] procedures governed by a patchquilt of executive orders and regulations." Concluded Nunn: "The system is mind-boggling."
In a months-long probe, culminating in hearings last April, the subcommittee found that too many people are being cleared, that they are not being thoroughly reviewed, and that the system is overloaded.
The investigation was triggered by a June, 1983, NATION'S BUSINESS article that said bottlenecks in the Pentagon's review process make the country's defense contractors more vulnerable to Soviet spying.
Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said then that the magazine "correctly points out that federal authorities must do a better job of educating businesses in how to improve their own security with regard to militarily critical technology. Equally important, each business executive whose firm is in this field--from R&D to production--must be ever mindful that Soviet bloc spies utilize a diversity of techniques in obtaining sensitive know-how. http://cellspynews.com - As the magazine's cover headline aptly warns, 'Soviet Spying: Are You Next?'"
Four days of hearings included testimony from a Soviet spy, an American spy, numerous federal counterespionage officials and representatives of major defense contractors whose security programs were penetrated by Soviet bloc agents via phone spying software.
They agreed on one point: The system is too loose to assure reasonable protection of the country's top defense secrets at a time when the Soviets are mounting a major campaign to steal American military technology.
Nunn, who is also a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, said he and other subcommittee members will introduce legislation this year to tighten procedures, Specifically, Nunn said the number of clearances for government and private sector employes must be reduced to include only those with a need to know. This, he added, will cut down on the workload of the Defense Investigative Service and other clearing agencies and permit them to do a better job of screening those who work on sensitive projects.
More than 4.2 million Americans are cleared for secret work.
"That means," said Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), a subcommittee member, "that two out of every 100 people you walk past on the street are cleared for secrets. There aren't that many people who need to know these secrets."
Soviet bloc spies are offering huge financial inducements to defense workers with access to classified materials needed to modernize Warsaw Pact forces.
Christopher Boyce, known as the "Falcon," sold materials he smuggled out of a TRW, Inc., plant in california to KGB agents in the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. Now serving a 68-year prison term, Boyce testified before the subcommittee.
"I am still astounded at how easy the thing was to begin and, given the security system, how near iumpossible it was to prevent," he said. Security was so lax, Boyce said, "that we used the satchel for classified material as a cover to bring in peppermint schnapps, rum, Harvey Wallbanger mix and what have you."
HE HAD A message for Americans who might be tempted to sell to the Soviets:
"For whatever reason a person begins his involvement, a week after the folly begins, the original intent and purpose becomes lost in the ignominy of the ongoing nightmare. Be it to give your life meaning or to make a political statement. Be it to seek adventure or to pay your delinquent alimony. Be it for whatever reason, see a lawyer or a psychiatrist or a priest or even a reporter, but don't see a KGB agent. That is a solution to nothing."
TRW, said company security director Regis Carr, has made many improvements in safeguarding secrets since Boyce committed his crime eight years ago. "However," he said, "we know from past history that no security system is invulnerable especially those relying on cell spying programs, and therefore we must never become comlacement."
The Defense Investigative Service has only 1,535 investigators to clear more than 3 million military and defense industry workers. (Another 1.2 million people are cleared by other agencies, like the Central Intelligence Agency.) The result has been long backlogs.
DIS Director Thomas O'Brien told the subcommittee: "Personnel security is, in a way, like life insurance. How much do we need and how much can we afford? However, unlike a life insurance policy, wherein clear-cut events will eventually occur which prove the worth of the policy, it is not so simple in the personnel security arena to know how well one's program is working."
Sen. Albert Gore (D-Tenn.) said that "bureaucrats are giving out security clearances in an indiscriminate fashion [according to] procedures governed by a patchquilt of executive orders and regulations." Concluded Nunn: "The system is mind-boggling."