The National Security Agency (NSA) has imposed new anti-leak measures designed to restrict downloading and sharing of secret-material from its computer networks after its former employee, Edward Snowden, put the agency under the spotlight by exposing NSA's surveillance programs in the United States.
NSA Chief Keith Alexander said that the new rule will require the presence of two people to gain access to its computer systems.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado Thursday, Ashton Carter, the deputy secretary of defense, said two computer systems administers are needed to work simultaneously when they are inside systems that contain sensitive data.
"In an effort for those in the intelligence community to be able to share with each other, there was an enormous amount of information concentrated in one place. That's a mistake," said Carter.
"The loading of everything onto a server creates a risk," added the deputy defense secretary. The "two-man-rule" is based on the model of how its nuclear weapons are handled, according Carter.
National Security Agency chief said, the agency is now working to restrict access to highly classified materials.
"Some of your sites are small ... and you only have one system administrator, so you've got to address all of those, and we are working our way through it," said the head of the Agency.
The director of the NSA also said that the American whistleblower had accessed much of the information on a single internal site that was designed to share information.
Snowden is currently holed up in the transit of zone of Moscow's airport after he flew from Hong Kong following an arrest warrant issued by Washington on charges of espionage and theft of government property.
His passport has been revoked by the Obama administration. The government has warned that whichever country shelters him could jeopardize its relationship with the United States.
