In a show of force last week, authorities arrested 21-year-old Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira in his Massachusetts family home. Teixeira is believed to be the man responsible for the Pentagon document leak that put the nation's security in jeopardy. In early April, reports began to surface about high-clearance national security documents being circulated online. The reports first became public after an open-source intelligence (OSINT) research group began to report on these photographed documents.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that Teixeira was arrested “without incident,” adding that he is connected to “an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.”

On Friday, Teixeira made an initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts. Judge David Hennessy charged Teixeira with possessing classified documents as they relate to the nation’s security and possessing national defense materials. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years behind bars. More charges are likely to come down the line as his current charges only relate to one of the documents he leaked. Teixeira is accused of leaking over a dozen documents.

The U.S. ranks sensitive material and documents by classifications. These classifications include “Confidential,” “Secret,” “Top Secret,” or “Top Secret - SCI.” SCI documents are the highest ranking and are designated as “further restricted,” requiring additional system controls for individuals to view them. Many of the documents that Teixeira leaked are believed to be “Top Secret - SCI” documents.

According to the criminal complaint, Teixeira is accused of violating two parts of Title 18, Section 793 (better known as the Espionage Act) and Section 1924. The World War I-era Espionage Act was enacted to criminalize individuals who mishandle national defense information in a manner that could jeopardize national security. Meanwhile, Section 1924 criminalizes the mishandling of classified information.

Investigators are still looking into how Teixeira, a low-ranking military IT specialist, was able to get his hands on such highly sensitive security and defense briefs. Officials were able to trace Teixeira's footprint back to a gaming forum, Discord. It is on this forum Teixeira is believed to have first shared the documents.

According to court filings, an online friend of Teixeira was able to help officials point them in Teixeira’s direction. The teenage friend who took part in an interview, but remained anonymous, shared that he and at least 24 others were part of a private chat group on Discord that Teixeira allegedly ran. On the group chat, Teixeira began to share information pertaining to the classified documents. At first, he would share direct quotes from the documents. When the group seemed unimpressed, he progressed to sharing full images of the documents. One of the group members went on to share the photos on other online platforms. It would be weeks until the documents would go viral, launching a national and global response.

While officials have a general understanding of how the documents surfaced, questions still remain about how Teixeira was able to get his hands on such classified documents in the first place, and why it took the government nearly a month to recognize the documents were circulating online.

Understanding the Vulnerability Exploits Of an Insider Threat

From at least May 2022, Teixeira was an Airman First Class in the 102nd Intelligence Wing at the Otis Air Base in Cape Cod. According to Intelligence experts, the 102nd Intelligence Wing largely deals with gathering and packaging highly classified intelligence for senior-ranking military officers across the globe. In this division, Teixeira worked as a Cyber Transport Systems specialist. In his role, it is believed Teixeira had access to the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication System (JWICS), a computer system that holds a range of military intelligence documents including briefings and foreign policy decisions.

In 2021, Teixeira was granted “Top Secret Security Clearance” as required by his role as a Cyber Defense Operations Journeyman. With this clearance, The 21-year-old likely signed a “lifetime binding non-disclosure agreement.” Violating this agreement could result in criminal charges.

While Teixeira’s position and security clearance is likely what enabled him to get his hands on such sensitive documents, questions remain about why the system allowed such an inexperienced and low-ranking individual to be successful in not only breaching a secure system but being able to do so for at least a month without being detected.

As the Pentagon’s security infrastructure has been scrutinized because of the breach, the Pentagon was quick to respond to its operations and procedures that enabled the breach to occur in the first place. Following the leak, the Pentagon announced that it would be limiting access to highly classified documents across the government, restricting access to only individuals who need to receive them. Officials have also shared that the leak has exposed vulnerabilities in both their management of government sequence and security operations, vulnerabilities that will now be assessed and addressed.

Because of Teixeira’s role in the leak and his unorthodox reason for distributing the highly sensitive material, it remains to be seen how the government will proceed with punishment against the 21-year-old. Teixeira has not yet entered a plea related to his charges and is currently being represented by a court-appointed attorney.