CIA list of new recruits risks adversaries exploiting data

The Central Intelligence Agency may have opened the door to additional national security risks after it put the names of recent recruits in an unclassified email to the White House to comply with an executive order, as President Donald Trump looks to slash the size of the federal workforce.

Former intelligence officers slammed the move and warned it may have compromised the employees’ cover, curbing their ability to operate for the years to come — particularly for recruits that are set to enter into clandestine missions abroad. That may also deter others potentially interested from applying to join in the future.

“That is horrifying,” said Andrew Bakaj, a former CIA attorney. Foreign adversaries that hack unclassified US systems may be able to obtain the list and triangulate the recruits’ identities, potentially exposing “something that poses a significant national security risk not only to us but to the sources with whom we may be working with overseas,” he said.

The CIA sought to comply with an executive order signed by Trump in late January for federal agencies to submit the names of new hires still on a probationary period as part of a White House effort to cut costs and shrink the federal workforce. Because the probationary period at the CIA is longer than at most agencies, that included all employees hired over the last two years. 

In order to comply with the order while also obeying classification laws, the agency determined it best to send each employee’s first name and last initial, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

“We are complying with the Executive Orders, and are providing requested information through the appropriate channels,” a CIA spokeswoman said. The CIA list was reported earlier by the New York Times.

Intelligence analysts were baffled as to why the message wasn’t sent in a classified manner, given the extent the agency goes to in order to protect its employees so they are not targeted by their adversaries. 

Sending the email in an unclassified way risks enemies like China accessing the information, they said, given its already proven ability to penetrate deeply inside US government systems. The identities could then be easily confirmed by combining the names with other data points such as credit card information or Facebook pages.

“Anyone worth their salt could pretty easily get to actual names,” Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC on Wednesday. The recruits will wonder for a long time, he said, “has my cover been compromised?”

The CIA is also offering staff buyouts to shrink the workforce to meet Trump’s cost-cutting goals and to sharpen the spy service’s focus on his priorities such as China. 

In addition to the national security risks, the moves may harm the agency’s ability to recruit new officers, an already arduous process that can take many months. In addition to submitting resumes and conducting interviews, recruits need to undergo a polygraph test as well as physical and psychological exams. The agency also interviews neighbors, friends, supervisors and co-workers to evaluate character, trustworthiness and loyalty to the US as well as the potential for coercion. By the end of that process, many potential hires have already withdrawn applications to take job offers elsewhere. 

The efforts to cut the workforce at the agency “telegraphs to the world that this is not a priority and we’re clearly going to be leaving gaping holes in our ability to protect ourselves and prevent catastrophic things from happening,” said Bakaj, the former CIA attorney. “It boggles the mind.”