classified information | The Contracting Education Academy

March 10, 2021 By cs

Former Air Force contractor pleads guilty to illegally taking 2,500 pages of classified information

A former contractor with the U.S. Air Force recently pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio to illegally taking approximately 2,500 pages of classified documents.

Isaak Vincent Kemp was charged on Jan. 25, 2021, by a Bill of Information. Originally, law enforcement discovered classified documents which contained approximately 2,500 pages of material classified at the Secret level, while executing a search warrant at Kemp’s home on May 25, 2019.

According to court documents, Kemp was employed as a contractor at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) from July 2016 to May 2019, and later as a contractor at the U.S. Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). While working at AFRL and NASIC – both located on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn, Ohio – Kemp had Top Secret security clearance.

Despite having training on various occasions on how to safeguard classified material, Kemp took 112 classified documents and retained them at his home.

Unauthorized removal or retention of classified documents is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Congress sets the maximum statutory sentence. Sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the Court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-air-force-contractor-pleads-guilty-illegally-taking-2500-pages-classified-information

November 1, 2019 By cs

As secret Pentagon spending rises, Defense firms cash in

Classified spending has edged up faster than overall defense budget requests, and accounts for nearly 11 percent of the $716 billion proposed for 2020.

The share of Pentagon spending hidden from public view is rising, as are defense contractors’ revenues from it.

The U.S. Defense Department’s overall budget request increased nearly 5 percent from 2019 to 2020, but classified spending rose 6 percent, according to the consulting firm Avascent. It accounts for about $76 billion, or almost 11%, of the $718 billion requested for the current fiscal year.

Military officials say they can’t talk about classified aircraft, space, and missile projects, lest they cede advantage to America’s enemies. (Critics, including House Armed Services Committee Chair Adam Smith, D-Wash., say excessive hidden spending hinders oversight, leads to waste, and undermines public trust.)

But there is one group of people talking about classified spending: the executives of America’s largest defense firms. In recent months, what defense contractors call “restricted” projects have become a hot topic on quarterly earnings calls with Wall Street analysts. Firms also tout the increase in classified contracts in annual reports and regulatory filings.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/technology/2019/10/secret-pentagon-spending-rises-defense-firms-cash/160818/

January 16, 2018 By AMK

Former NSA contractor admits to stealing confidential documents

A former National Security Agency contractor at the center of one of several pending leak cases has pleaded guilty to one of 20 counts he faces for removing classified information from the agency and storing those documents in his home for decades.

Harold Martin III, 52, was arrested in August 2016 and later indicted on 20 counts of willful retention of national defense information. According to the indictment, over the course of 23 years working as a contractor for the intelligence community, Martin took documents from the agencies he was working for and kept them in his Maryland home, some of which included top secret and sensitive compartmented information.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2018/01/former-nsa-contractor-admits-stealing-confidential-documents/144956/

Background on this story can be found in this 2016 New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/us/harold-martin-nsa.html

October 30, 2017 By AMK

Massive classified NSA contract under protest

One of the National Security Agency’s most important technology contracts — secretly awarded to AT&T weeks ago — is under protest by one of the losing bidders, DXC Technology.

The contract in question is part of the NSA’s classified Groundbreaker program, which dates back to a 2001 effort to outsource its IT operations originally valued at more than $5 billion but grew so large NSA recently opted to break the new contract into three separate pieces.

NSA awarded the first contract of the new Groundbreaker recompete to tech firm CSRA in September for $2.4 billion. Because of the protest, the Government Accountability Office will review NSA’s award of the second Groundbreaker contract to AT&T, which sources tell Nextgov is valued at less than $2 billion.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cloud-computing/2017/10/massive-classified-nsa-contract-under-protest/142078

A former contractor with the U.S. Air Force recently pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio to illegally taking approximately 2,500 pages of classified documents.

Classified spending has edged up faster than overall defense budget requests, and accounts for nearly 11 percent of the $716 billion proposed for 2020.

Next month, the Defense Department is expected to bid out a lucrative contract that will task a single cloud provider with building the cloud the U.S. military will use for war.

A former National Security Agency contractor at the center of one of several pending leak cases has pleaded guilty to one of 20 counts he faces for removing classified information from the agency and storing those documents in his home for decades.

One of the National Security Agency’s most important technology contracts — secretly awarded to AT&T weeks ago — is under protest by one of the losing bidders, DXC Technology.

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