Russia and China could be 'making it impossible for the US to hide' its intelligence activities
The intelligence community fears that sort of a database could be used to identify, profile, track, and potentially blackmail or recruit US intelligence operatives around the world.
Digital analysis of the data can reveal "who is an intelligence officer, who travels where, when, who's got financial difficulties, who's got medical issues, [to] put together a common picture," William Evanina, the top counterintelligence official for the US intelligence community, told The Times.
In recent months, hackers linked to the Chinese government have stolen data on millions of Americans via the Office of Personnel Management (which holds US security clearance background checks), the health insurance giant Anthem, and two major airlines (United and American).
The attacks diverged from their usual pattern of stealing intellectual property and defense secrets. Instead, the hackers have targeted information that would enable them to build a database of US diplomats, intelligence operatives, and those with business in China.
Some CIA, National Security Agency, and military special operations personnel were exposed in the OPM attack, resulting in what counterintelligence expert Joel Brenner described as "a significant blow" to American human intelligence.
Russia, too, has been linked to at least two major government data breaches this year. In April, Russia-hired hackers reportedly broke into an unclassified White House system and stole information about President Barack Obama's daily schedule and communications. In July, Russian hackers knocked the Pentagon's email system offline for two weeks and shared large quantities of data across thousands of websites, NBC reported.
The stolen data could forseeably be used as leverage for foreign governments over individuals, but blackmail may not be the hackers' only (or even primary) objective.
"Every CIA employee and visitor coming from abroad flies in and out of Dulles, and chances are they're flying United," Aitel told Business Insider.
.jp2)
"Cross-referencing names contained in the OPM, IRS, and other caches would expose identities of US personnel working abroad under commercial or diplomatic cover," Robert Caruso, a former Navy special security officer who has worked in security at the State and Defense Departments, told Business Insider via email.
"You could easily target their families and employers with threats of blackmail or worse," Caruso added.
The Obama administration is now trying to figure out how best to retaliate for the data breaches without escalating the cyberwar. The White House is reportedly considering sanctions against China, in line with an executive order Obama passed in April authorizing financial and travel sanctions against anyone involved in foreign-based cyberattacks.
"We need to assume China has hacked every database" at this point, Aitel said. "Anything China competes with, they hack first. Economic sanctions is the obvious response, and it's long overdue."