NSA breach: Possible leaker reportedly could still be at work
A reported breach at the National Security Agency has been described as "catastrophic" and even worse than Edward Snowden's massive data leak. The New York Times reports a group called the Shadow Brokers has been releasing information on NSA cyberweapons since August 2016.
It's now being used against the United States.
The Times reports the government does not know if the secrets were leaked or hacked or whether the possible leaker is still at work.
"We don't know what else the leakers may have, and most important... we don't know how this information got out of the National Security Agency. And that's 15 months after the first leak occurred," CBS News senior national security contributor Michael Morell said Monday on "CBS This Morning." "That's what's most scary to me because that says we don't know the totality of this, and more important, we don't know if they're stealing information as we sit here right now."
Morell, a former deputy and acting director of the CIA, agreed that this could be worse than the Snowden leak "because [Snowden] leaked descriptions of these tools. These are the actual tools themselves." Morell said the tools are used "to collect intelligence on our adversaries to protect the country."
"We've now made that much more difficult to collect that intelligence that's so important," Morell said.
While Morell said some are pointing fingers at Russia, he's not so sure.
"If Russia had access to NSA in terms of cyber, internet access, or in terms of an insider, why would they go public and give that up? I tend to think this is either a disgruntled insider or an outside group," Morell said.
Watch the video above to see why Morell thinks President Trump is "gullible to being manipulated" by Russian President Vladimir Putin and why the U.S. is "the big loser" after Mr. Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
