Booz Allen Hamilton hires former FBI director Robert Mueller to review security processes
29 Oct 2016
Booz Allen Hamilton, which provides technology and management services to US government, said on Thursday that it had hired Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, to review of the security processes of the firm. The move comes after an employee was charged with stealing huge amounts of classified data from the National Security Agency.
The company, which makes billions of dollars from contracts with US intelligence agencies annually, is under renewed scrutiny, after authorities took Harold Thomas Martin into custody earlier.(See: After Snowden, another NSA contractor held for stealing classified data) ''We take the trust clients place in us seriously and are proud to support our country's important national security missions,'' Craig Veith, Booz Allen's vice president for external relations, said in a statement. ''We are committed to doing our part to detect potential insider threats, which are complex and constantly evolving.''
In a complaint, which was revealed this month, Martin was charged with what was allegedly one of the largest thefts of classified material in US history. Martin's arrest comes in the wake of leaks by Edward Snowden, who also worked for Booz Allen while on contract to the NSA. Snowden walked away with massive amounts of sensitive information.
According to prosecutors, Martin took at least 50 terabytes of digital data or as much as 500 million pages of information as also six boxes of files, many of which were left open in his house or car.
Martin, 51, was taken into custody in August, but his arrest was only announced earlier this month. According to prosecutors he had spent over two decades stealing secret documents and hoarding them at his home in Maryland.
The prosecutors further said that the material stolen by Martin contained a top secret document that outlined ''specific operational plans against a known enemy of the United States and its allies.''