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FOIA: NSA Contracts Stored In Paper Files, Unsearchable, Unindexed

Posted by timothy on from the sorry-I-dropped-your-money-in-my-dungeon dept.

v3rgEz writes "Wish you were a little more organized? Have trouble finding that archived contract when you actually need it? Don't feel too bad: The National Security Agency has the same problem, claiming that its contract database is stored manually and impossible to search by topic, category, or even by vendor in most cases."

6 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. There really know why... by jcdr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... there don't want to be vulnerable to others agencies like them !

    1. Re:There really know why... by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 3, Insightful

      play 'guess what one line changed' on a 200 page document.

      This is why ALL government documents (law, contracts, etc) should be kept as a relatively plain text format in a Git repo, and if any party wants to change it, it should get branched, commits should be signed, and merges should should also be signed by those who approved them.

      It would be most informative to see who proposed the "kill people and make them into soylent green" filibusters to "The Happy Kittens and Gifts To Orphans Bill"

  2. Impossible to steal too... by skaralic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    On the upside, for the NSA, that makes a Snowden-like leak pretty much impossible.

  3. Re:Huh by somersault · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The quote is:

    A search for overly broad keywords such as "CNO" and "computer network attack" would be tantamount to conducting a manual search through thousands of folders and then reading each document in order to determine whether the document pertains to a contract.

    Tantamount means "equivalent in seriousness to; virtually the same as." So they didn't actually directly say that these files are on paper. Though there isn't any other explanation for why it would require a manual search. Either way, how can we actually trust that they're telling the truth there?

    --
    which is totally what she said
  4. aha by superwiz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And if you believe that, I have some healthcare to sell you.

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  5. Refusing/Lying is illegal, being incompetent isn't by sandbagger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's legally safer for them to say that they're incompetent.

    --
    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.