Tulsi Gabbard is sworn in as Director of National Intelligence by Attorney General Pam Bondi on February 12. Gabbard announced an investigation into the secure chat platforms and other collaboration systems used by the IC to track leakers of classified information and identify discussions deemed obscene or unprofessional. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
By David DiMolfetta,
Cybersecurity Reporter, Nextgov/FCW
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Tulsi Gabbard said recent examples of unauthorized leaks involve data about Iran, Israel, U.S.-Russia relations and activities in ODNI’s counterintelligence office.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced an investigation into the secure chat platforms and other collaboration systems used by the intelligence community to track leakers of classified information and identify discussions deemed obscene or unprofessional, her office said Friday.
The probe would focus on the top secret variant of Intelink, a network used to facilitate the exchange of classified intelligence products and other data that’s transmitted between spies and analysts throughout the intelligence community’s various offices, said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Last month, Gabbard said she fired more than 100 intelligence officers from 15 agencies after a group of NSA employees was found to have used the system to discuss sexual themes and gender transition surgery. Conservative magazine City Journal first reported those chat discussions.
ODNI also said that recent incidents of unauthorized disclosures within the intelligence community include a leaker providing classified information to the Huffington Post, an insider sharing intelligence on Iran-Israel affairs, another disclosing details about the U.S.-Russia relationship and a source exposing activities and actions of the office’s National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
“We know of and are aggressively pursuing recent leakers from within the intelligence community and will hold them accountable,” Gabbard said in a statement.
It’s not clear how the investigation will extend to media outlets. In the first Trump administration, the Justice Department sought to surreptitiously gain access to phone and email records of journalists in an effort to root out leakers. That included reporters who covered the FBI’s investigation into President Trump’s ties to Russia.
Gabbard, in her confirmation hearing to be DNI, declined to call famed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden a traitor. While a member of Congress, she co-sponsored legislation calling for espionage charges against Snowden to be dropped.
“I’m focused on the future and how we can prevent something like this from happening again,” she told the Senate Intelligence Committee during the hearing.