The Washington Post has reviewed internal documents that show government officials shared sensitive information with thousands of federal employees.
According to the online directory of the General Services Administration, records reveal that career employees accidentally shared sensitive documents in a Google Drive with all the GSA’s staff, who total more than 11,200.
Information was also shared about a proposed blast door for the White House visitor center.
Last week, the incident prompted a report on cybersecurity incidents and an investigation.
The GSA manages real estate for the government and provides administrative and technical support to a large part of the federal bureaucracy.
Google Drive is the latest security breach that occurred during the Trump Administration, but oversharing of sensitive information has been occurring for at least four years. This indicates a pattern of careless handling of sensitive data that has affected both the Trump and the Biden administrations.
A long-time GSA official said that the agency uses software to scan its Google Drives for files that have been inappropriately shared. These are then locked down. The employee said that GSA holds mandatory training every year for its staff to educate them on best practices regarding document sharing and privacy.
The employee stated, “Internal controls may not be perfect, but they are not a complete failure. It’s not as if we don’t try to mitigate the situation if an employee makes a misstep.”
Michael Williams is a Syracuse University Professor who studies international defense and security issues. The breach shows the need for more safety training among government workers, who are now working in the digital age.
