Published: June 12, 2013
By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press
... Complicating the matter, however, is that Snowden identified himself as a computer systems administrator working as a contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton on NSA systems. If that is the case, systems administrators often have broader computer access, which allows them to find or correct problems with computer programs, networks and even access to other workers' computers.
While he may have legitimately had access to the classified information, his ability to copy and carry out the data underscores the continued gaps in the federal government's computer security ...
... Snowden appears to have had access to things he should not have, according to former NSA inspector general Joel Brenner, judging by Snowden's leaking of documents so secret, they are supposed to be shared with only a few key employees on any given program.
"The man's access seems to have been extraordinary," Brenner said Tuesday. "Somebody's going to have to look at what access he had - and should have had - in all the jobs he ever held in the intelligence business. That's the investigation that's going on now. Somebody is going back and looking at every footprint or fingerprint he left in his career."
http://www.kentucky.com/2013/06/12/2675835/snowden-triggers-scrutiny-on-secret.html