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One of the issues I stumbled across back in the day was word-processor files/documents that retain fragments of material that had been deleted or overwritten in the document as presented. Anyone with the skills to examine such files' raw format could find the proposal elements that were cut, the spelling mistakes that were corrected, or the seventeen versions of the summary that did not pass muster. This issue is especially interesting when documents, for example, are abridged to produce a lower classification version of a document. I suspect that most federal workers are unacquainted with the issue and unlikely to take steps to frustrate hackers like me from prying loose the deepest, darkest secrets that the authors never intended their documents to convey. In the down-classification scenario, it would involve the "spillage" of the higher classified information redacted not from the document's file, but solely from the document as presented by the word processor.
So it was with some amusement that I ran across this tidbit:
So Bondi may have been uncompliant with that special Epstein Stuff law after all—not for over-redacting, as her incompetent Biden DoJ holdover staff thought they had managed out of abundance of caution, but by actually releasing feebly encrypted, unredacted materials with some easily ignored black rectangles. (The DoJ loves it almost as much as the intelligence community when these fundamental oversights turn up. Trust me, I know.) The Biden-appointed team under Trump has handed their political leadership all manner of gag gifts, but this one might actually be unintentional.
I have no sympathy for Bondi. Clinton cleaned house, W cleaned house, Obama cleaned house, but not these guys. No sympathy for self-inflicted wounds.
Discussion (51)
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Very interesting, Sisyphus. Good work!
David Wallerstein is a US historian who specializes in nuclear weapons. He did something similar, showing that LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) did a lousy redaction job on moderately sensitive material. Wallerstein's uncoverings were careful to stick to already known designs and configurations.
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It is a dicey matter to deal with classified material that, through ones own very elementary hackery, becomes revealed and is likely above your classification level and/or outside of your need to know. Sharing my findings with my security officer was routine. Publishing my findings would be unthinkable. Publishing my techniques would have endangered my continued employment at best.
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The Xweeter is very sensitive to the consequences of even discussing these things as well:
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One of my wife's friend's asked "So what does your son-in-law do?"
"He can't tell me. And I can't tell you".
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It is a problem.
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