Analyst for spy agency accused of hacking classified anti-terrorism system

Wired reports that Brian Keith Montgomery, an analyst at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (a spy satellite agency), has been charged with gaining unauthorized access to a protected computer or exceeding authorized access, and obtaining classified information.

He allegedly entered a classified internal system which was used for terrorism investigations and had nothing to do with his job. According to the prosecutors, he ignored the security warning and got the password from a message he was authorized to receive.

Montgomery claims that he just didn’t see the warning message, according to which only individuals involved in the operation were permitted to access the system. The Defense Criminal Investigative Service claims that by accessing it, he endangered the investigation – although he’s not accused of misusing the information.