In the latest developments, an FBI analyst, Kendra Kingsbury, has been charged with the crime of stealing confidential files relating to 13 years worth of cybersecurity and counterterrorism data.
Data of extremely sensitive nature stolen:
The US Department of Justice, while providing the mal-operations of the charged, noted that Kendra Kingsbury had removed and subsequently held national security, secret, and confidential documents between the periods of June 2004 and December 2017.
Reportedly, the classified documents that were abolished from FBI systems comprised sensitive data in connection with cybersecurity threats, terrorism, intelligence bulletins, open FBI investigations, human operations, as well as reports describing the technical capabilities of the FBI against counterintelligence and counterterrorism targets.
It was reported that some of these documents contain highly sensitive, confidential materials particularly related to al Qaeda members suspected “associates” of Osama Bin Laden and emerging terrorist groups in Africa.
Being a former FBI analyst, Kendra Kingsbury was in her duty roles for over 12 years in the law enforcement division.
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She was well versed in the techniques of handling sensitive reports and non-disclosure practices. During her tenure, the intelligence agent was assigned to squads including those focused on counterterrorism, drug trafficking, and gang crime.
FBI agent critically charged:
“The defendant was not authorized to remove and retain these sensitive government materials, including the national defense Information and classified documents,” the indictment reads. “Nor did the defendant have a “need to know” in most, if not all, of the information contained in those materials.”
“The breadth and depth of classified national security information retained by the defendant for more than a decade is simply astonishing,” said Alan Kohler, Jr. Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “The defendant, who’s well trained in handling classified information, put her country’s sensitive secrets at risk. The FBI will go to great lengths to investigate individuals who put their own interests above US national security, including when the individual is an FBI employee.”
The former analyst is being charged with two counts of the willful retention of national defense information.
Kendra Kingsbury was suspended back in 2017 and is now under arrest under the aforementioned charges.
