What the article also heavily implies, but does not specifically say, is that any single, individual systems administrator, on his own sole authority, could grant himself access to any, and every, piece of classified information located on any NSA server, anywhere in the world. In a shared intelligence network environment, this may not have been limited to only NSA servers. NSA data, especially sources and methods intelligence information, is likely the most classified information in the United States National Security and Intelligence community, for reasons that are now becoming obvious.Washington Post Article linked below wrote:
The NSA, along with the rest of the intelligence community, began to put more information in computer networks after a government commission criticized intelligence and law enforcement agencies for failing to share information that could have prevented the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Restrictions on access based on an individual’s “need to know” gave way to the presumption of a “need to share.”
But that also .. ( gave network and server ) systems administrators ... access to ( intelligence ) files.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nat ... ory_1.html