General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: NSA Staffer: Snowden Didn't Dupe Coworkers Out of Passwords [View all]ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...that "they willing(ly) gave him their passwords".
Perhaps you have a reading comprehension problem. If so, you might consider going back and re-reading the article. It is quite clear on how he got access.
Perhaps you don't understand what it means to have full access to a machine as the system administrator.
Perhaps you should find out, lest you (continue to) look like a fool.
Hint: if you are not using encryption software for your email messages, then system administrators on EVERY system where your email lands as it hops over to its final destination, can read your messages. No password required.
Similarly, if his superiors granted him sysadmin access, then he did not need to know anyone's password to access the data stored on those systems. And apparently, a lot of that highly classified data was stored in un-encrypted format. Oops! Also, the NSA apparently did not have even rudimentary auditing in place to record what he was accessing. Double Oops!!
It reminds me of Stratfor, whose CEO could not be bothered to secure his own account with a strong password. His company advised others on best practices, but he was above all that. Too damn much trouble, apparently. That's the thing about computer security, it's certainly inconvenient when done right. But not nearly as inconvenient as when you get f***ed up because you didn't do it right.