14 DAY TRIAL // 22-year-old William Millay, a military police officer in Alaska, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after he attempted to sell classified documents to an individual he believed was a Russian intelligence officer.
The Russian spy was actually an undercover FBI agent, so Millay – who was known for his “harsh and radical views” of the military and the US government – was arrested.
“Money was what he was after. He was willing to sell sensitive information—to potentially endanger his fellow military members as well as the security of the country—for a payday,” said Special Agent Sam Johnson.
According to the FBI, Millay was arrested in October 2011 and pleaded guilty to attempted espionage and soliciting another individual to commit espionage.
The former officer asked other soldiers to aid him with his plan. Some of them didn’t take him seriously, but some of them did. However, no one reported his activities.
Experts say that this is another perfect example that insiders still pose a major threat.
“The recent sentencing of former US Army MP William Millay to 16 years in prison for attempting to sell classified military information to the Russians is further evidence that ─ as the FBI puts it in its blog ─ ‘the insider threat is alive and well’,” SpectorSoft VP Nick Cavalancia told Softpedia in an email.
Cavalancia also makes an interesting remark regarding the latest Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report.
“The recent Verizon DBIR may have revealed that a majority of threats, up to 92 percent, come from outsiders, but this should not overshadow the fact that insiders cause major damage and that security and risk professionals and leading law enforcement agencies certainly recognize this,” Cavalancia noted.
“Anyone who looks closely at the record of damages caused by breaches will discover that insiders are not only a leading concern but also a leading problem. In fact, a quick look at the record on Privacy Rights Clearing House shows that since 2005, 441 insider-driven breaches have led to the compromise of more than 32 million records,” he added.
“Another thing to consider is whether or not there are in fact more dangerous insiders than outsiders. Most outsider-driven breaches and compromises are the result of widely distributed attacks by unknown numbers of individuals and cybercrime organizations, which skews the notion that outsiders are a bigger threat.”
“The Verizon DBIR report shows that 14 percent of the data breaches they encountered come from insiders, which, despite the volume of outsider threats quantified, shows that it is equally important to not lose sight of the fact that organizations need to place special focus on the insider.”