FILE SPY METADATA DOWNLOAD

The file should have been flattened first and posted as an image file. The key mistake was to have posted the PowerPoint in its original native format. One of America's top secrets was lost due to careless handling of metadata. (Spies are like litigation counsel, they have opposing spies that watch their every move and look for mistakes.) Once the file was downloaded and opened in PowerPoint, the embedded numbers underlying the expenditure graphic were quickly uncovered.

FILE SPY METADATA DOWNLOAD

There anyone could (and did) download the PowerPoint file onto their own computers. The big mistake was made after the conference when someone in the agency posted the PowerPoint file on the Defense Intelligence Agency website in native format. The secrecy of the nation's total intelligence budget was maintained at the conference.

In this way the secret numbers in the graphic were not displayed when the PowerPoint was shown. This is exactly what they did in the unclassified version of the PowerPoint shown in Colorado. Further, if you change the configuration of the graphic, the numbers will not be revealed at all. If you change the numbers in the spreadsheet, the columns change. The spreadsheet embedded as metadata in the graphic image controls the appearance of the bar graph. All you have to do is double click on the bar chart shown above and a spreadsheet is revealed.

But when you open the native file using PowerPoint software, it is easy to make this embedded information visible. The metadata revealing the classified information is not visible when the unclassified version of the PowerPoint is shown. It would have been simple to reconfigure the graphic in PowerPoint to display the actual numbers to an audience with clearance. I presume this because the slide contains metadata revealing the actual amount of the award dollars. A copy of this unclassified slide is shown below.Īpparently the DNI employee had used this same PowerPoint slide before to make classified presentations to persons with top secret clearance. The government contractors were only shown the graphical bars, and were left to guess what the actual expenditures were that the bars depicted. Because these figures are highly classified, a scale of the total number of award dollars was omitted from the Y-axis of the bar chart. On May 14, 2007, a Senior Procurement Executive of DNI gave an unclassified presentation to a group of outside contractors in Colorado entitled 'Procuring the Future.' Her PowerPoint included a slide with two graphics depicting the trend of award dollars to contractors from 1995 to 2006. The size of the total US intelligence budget that DNI oversees is one of the government's most closely guarded secrets. The DNI oversees all federal intelligence agencies, including the CIA.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence ('DNI') is the highest intelligence agency in the United States. The latest metadata mistake story proves this point in classic 'spy versus spy' fashion. And what is out of sight is out of mind, and so easily forgotten. So if James Bond types accidentally reveal state secrets because of metadata, then it could happen to anyone. If anyone is serious about secrecy, it is espionage professionals. If a privileged communication in a computer file is accidentally disclosed, say because it was contained in metadata that they did not see, they want to get it back, and prevent a waiver.įor these reasons it is especially troubling to lawyers to hear that even the best professionals at secret keeping, our country's top spies, mess up on metadata. That is one of the reasons for the advent of 'clawback' agreements and new Rule 26(b)(5)(B). The concern is magnified for litigation attorneys who have opposing counsel watching their every move for mistakes. For this reason, attorneys, more than most, tend to worry about inadvertently disclosing these secrets by metadata. This can be very serious for attorneys because of the high ethical duty they are under to maintain the secrecy of the confidential information disclosed to them by their clients.

File spy metadata