The Director of National Intelligence of the United States used a weak password for personal accounts for several years
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard used the same untrustworthy password for several personal online accounts for several years. About this informs Wired.
According to research firms District4Labs and Constella Intelligence, between 2012 and 2019, Gabbard used a password containing the word “shraddha” for at least six services: her personal email (leaked in 2017), Gmail (2019), Dropbox and LinkedIn (2012), MyFitnessPal (2018), and the HauteLook account owned by Nordstrom (2018).
Using the same password for multiple services goes against basic cybersecurity principles, especially when it comes to high-level officials with access to classified information. Gabbard was a member of the US Congress from 2013 to 2021, serving on the Armed Services Committee, the Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee, and the Foreign Affairs Committee. Currently, she heads 18 intelligence agencies with a budget of about $100 billion.
The password “shraddha” is believed to be related to the spiritual name “Shraddha Dasi”, which Gabbard may have received during her initiation into the religious organization “Foundation for the Science of Identity”, which is part of the Hare Krishna movement. However, she and her representatives deny the current affiliation to this structure. Her deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, called such claims “ignoring the facts and Islamophobic slander.”
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) emphasizes the importance of creating unique, complex passwords for each account. If one account is compromised, attackers can easily gain access to others using duplicate passwords.
Gabbard has previously been criticized for political views and contacts that some consider risky from a security perspective. The Democratic National Commission even called her a “direct threat to national security” because of her statements on Syria and positive coverage in the Russian media. During the Senate hearings, she rejected all the accusations, saying that her only “patrons are God, her own conscience and the Constitution of the United States.”
As Director of National Intelligence, Gabbard advises the President and the National Security Council on all intelligence matters and is responsible for protecting classified government information. At the same time, new details about its approaches to cyber security cast doubt on its ability to guarantee the protection of even personal data.
