'Doomsday' cache seen as Snowden's 'insurance policy'

British and US intelligence officials say they are worried about a "doomsday" cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud.

The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies and includes names of US and allied intelligence personnel, seven current and former US officials and other sources briefed on the matter said.

The data is protected with sophisticated encryption, and multiple passwords are needed to open it, said two of the sources, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

The passwords are in the possession of at least three different people and are valid for only a brief time window each day, they said. The identities of people who might have the passwords are unknown.

Spokespeople for the NSA and the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.

One source described the cache of still unpublished material as Snowden's "insurance policy" against arrest or physical harm.

US officials and other sources said only a small proportion of the classified material Snowden downloaded during stints as a contract systems administrator for NSA has been made public. Some Obama administration officials have said privately that Snowden downloaded enough material to fuel two more years of news stories.

"The worst is yet to come," said one former US official who follows the investigation closely.

Snowden, who is believed to have downloaded between 50,000 and 200,000 classified NSA and British government documents, is living under temporary asylum in Russia, where he fled after traveling to Hong Kong. He has been charged in the United States under the Espionage Act

Cryptome, a website that started publishing leaked secret documents years before the group WikiLeaks or Snowden surfaced, estimated that more than 500 Snowden documents have been made public so far.

Given Snowden's presence in Moscow, and the low likelihood that he will return to the US anytime soon, US and British authorities say they are focused more on dealing with the consequences of the material he has released than trying to apprehend him.

It is unclear whether US or allied intelligence agencies - or those of adversary services such as Russia's - know where the material is stored and, if so, have tried to unlock it.

One former senior US official said that Russians have cryptographers skilled enough to open the cache if they find it.

Reuters

A woman holds a portrait of former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden in front of the US embassy during a protest in Berlin in July. Snowden allegedly has a "doomsday" cache of encrypted material stored on a data cloud. Thomas Peter / Reuters

(China Daily 11/27/2013 page11)