Swiss Spy Warning Reveals Huge Security Breach: CIA and MI6 Informed
Officials in Switzerland have warned the United States and Great Britain that sensitive security information regarding both nations could have been compromised after a former employee in a Swiss intelligence agency downloaded the material.
Several reports coming from Switzerland reveal that a source close to the ongoing investigation said that a senior level administrator had been able to download several terabytes- several million pages- of classified documents from servers used by the Swiss intelligence service. He then copied them on several portable hard drives, and was able to walk out of the building with the hard drives in his backpack.
Swiss investigators stated that they had recovered portable storage devices containing the stolen data after they took the suspect into custody. Authorities believed he had intended to sell the classified documents, but were able to recover the material before he had a chance to sell it.
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The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service, also known as NDB, shared counter-terrorism data with both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6. The NDB also said the sensitive material could have been compromised during the theft, but have yet to state the entire fallout of such a security breach as reported by Reuters.
The Swiss agency routinely shared data dealing with counter-terrorism and other issues with the U.S. and Britain. Swiss authorities informed U.S. and British agencies that they have yet know the extent of the data breach.
Sources close to the investigation stated that the suspect, whose name has not been released, worked for the for the NDB as part of Switzerland's Defense Ministry for nearly eight years. He was considered a very talented IT technician and given "administrator rights," allowing him to access most of the NDB's networks that contained sensitive information related to counter-terrorism operations.
A Swiss parliamentary committee was created and is now conducting its own investigation surrounding the theft of the top secret information. They are expected to conclude their investigation sometime next spring.
