The arrest of 21-year-old Airman First Class Jack Teixeira last week has inspired myriad reactions from armchair pundits declaring 21 is too young to be trusted with classified information to the need to reform the Department of Defense and the intelligence community to the US Speaker of the House calling for hearings on how the administration of President Joe Biden could have allowed such a breach to occur. In my opinion, the real concern is the need to reform policies and processes associated with how information is accessed by insiders.
As the case brought against Teixeira unfolds, one realization we don’t have to wait for is that the insider risk management program within the United States Air Force’s 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base failed, and failed spectacularly. A reading of the Department of Justice affidavit in support of an arrest warrant provides a glimpse into Teixeira’s naivete and that his actions were malevolent from the get-go.