A Review of FBI Security Programs

some FBI personnel routinely chose not to upload certain information into ACS. For
instance, it is common knowledge within the Bureau that the New York Field Office (NYFO)
generally refuses to upload certain types of national-security information. NYFO
intelligence agents have confirmed that this is the case. In 1995, NYFO personnel were
asked to assess ACS as a pilot system before it was deployed, and they developed significant
concerns about security. An intern from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was
given ordinary user access and challenged to discover system vulnerabilities. In an
afternoon, the intern accessed a number of restricted files.
NYFO intelligence agents have also long worried that, if they were to upload all caserelated
information, as required, not only would restricted files be at risk of compromise, but
information contained in unrestricted files viewed in the aggregate might create complete
pictures that should not be disseminated throughout the Bureau. These agents also believe
that it is possible to ascertain user passwords by employing ACS system tools.
Skepticism about ACS security is not limited to NYFO. At the Engineering Research
Facility, a program manager operating a Top Secret/SCI program noted that his unit does not
upload into ACS even sanitized versions of the unit’s reports. Instead, the unit uploads only
verification that a report exists and requires that prospective readers request the report in
hard copy. Personnel in the Washington and Indianapolis field offices also expressed
concerns about uploading classified information into ACS, particularly asset information, and
often they do not upload that information.
Several ACS users described a common situation that could result in the inadvertent
exposure of files intended to be restricted. Documents uploaded to ACS may be attached to
multiple case files. Frequently, a document is sent to a substantive case file, which may be
restricted, and to an administrative file, which often is not. Thus, the uploaded document is
restricted when serialized in the substantive case file, but not when serialized in the
unrestricted administrative file. For example, NYFO intelligence agents pointed out that
classified information from the Washington Field Office’s annual asset reports can be found
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