Earlier this month, a U.S. soldier was arrested for allegedly attempting to funnel classified national security information to Russia — intelligence concerning the American military's most widely deployed tank.
Yes, just the sort of bedtime reading Vladimir Putin dreams about: intimate details of one of America's most important pieces of armored hardware.
It would be comforting to dismiss this as a once-in-a-blue-moon aberration.
It isn't.
As someone living in the world of cybersecurity analysis long enough to know that "rare breach" is a fantasy phrase, I see incidents like this far more often than the public imagines.
In the digital era, personal cell phones and wireless gadgets have become the favored accomplices in smuggling classified material out of secure facilities.
And to those who think this is strictly the handiwork of hostile foreign states — let me disabuse you of that delusion.
Insider threats are the neglected menace of national security.
Yes, there are foreign intelligence services and cybercrime syndicates salivating over American secrets. But there are also lone wolves with iPhones, distracted contractors who think rules are for other people, and well-intentioned but sloppy employees who inadvertently hand adversaries a gift-wrapped advantage.
Each one is a walking, talking breach vector.
The tragic irony?
We already have the technology to neutralize most of these threats.
It's called Wireless Intrusion Detection Systems — WIDS for short.
This isn't science fiction; WIDS can detect, locate, and alert security personnel to any unauthorized wireless signals. It's like having an air raid siren for rogue Wi-Fi.
And yet, here's the kicker: roughly 90% of federal secure facilities don't bother to use it. Instead, they rely on signs that politely inform everyone: "No phones or electronics allowed."
As if laminated warnings were ever a match for greed, ideology, or espionage.
Let's be clear: a problem born of technology cannot be solved by trust alone.
It must be countered with better, smarter technology.
WIDS offers a direct, measurable way to clamp down on insider leaks.
So why isn't it standard issue in every sensitive government installation?
If leaking state secrets is a felony that earns prison time, shouldn't ignoring readily available tools to detect and prevent those leaks be considered its own form of dereliction?
We wouldn't secure a nuclear arsenal with a "Please don’t touch the warheads" sign.
And yet, when it comes to guarding our most sensitive assets, that's precisely the depth of our current security posture. Without real-time monitoring, "no phones allowed" is not a rule — it's a suggestion.
The stakes are far higher than the public is told.
When classified information leaks, it doesn't just compromise a single system — it corrodes trust with allies, hands adversaries a detailed playbook for exploiting vulnerabilities, and forces costly redesigns or replacements.
These costs — often in the billions — are not just monetary.
The strategic damage can echo for decades.
Deploying WIDS in every secure facility is not just prudent; it's glaringly obvious.
The investment is minimal compared to the fallout from a major breach.
For the cost of a few fighter jet engines, we could cover every high-security building in Washington and beyond with advanced wireless detection.
This is a rare moment in national security where the fix is both technically simple and financially negligible.
Yet inertia, bureaucratic myopia, and a stubborn faith in outdated security theater keep us exposed.
Every day without WIDS is another day our adversaries are free to slip through digital cracks. In national security, there is no "undo" button.
There is only the irreversible reality of a compromise — and the knowledge that we could have stopped it but didn't.
Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, cybersecurity researcher, founder of ItFunk.Org, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cybersecurity and politics, is regularly published by many of the largest news organizations in the world. Read More of His Reports — Here.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.