Gregg William Bergersen Charged with Selling U.S. Secrets

Gregg William Bergersen has found himself in quite a huge mess today. He has been arrested along with two others, Tai Shen Kuo and Yu Xin Kang, for conspiracy to disclose national defense information, according to the Associated Press.

Bergersen, who was a Department of Defense employee, has been accused of distributing personal and classified information about the United States Space Shuttle and also about military sales to Taiwan. Gregg William Bergersen was a weapons policy analyst in Arlington, Virgina.

According to court documents, Tai Shen Kuo purchased classified documents from Gregg William Bergersen several times. The meetings took place across several states including Virgina, South Carolina and Nevada. At these meetings, the majority of the information exchanged was regarding military sales between the United States and Taiwan.

It is not clear at this time how much damage this leak has caused to the security of the United States. However, it is known that the matter is being looked into fully and all necessary measures will be taken to bring the United States to a secure status.

Kenneth L. Wainstein, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, released the following statement:

"Today's prosecution demonstrates that foreign spying remains a serious threat in the post-Cold War world. The conspiracy charged in this case has all the elements of a classic espionage operation: a foreign government focused on accessing our military secrets; foreign operatives who effectively use stealth and guile to gain that access; and an American government official who is willing to betray both his oath of public office and the duty of loyalty we rightly demand from every American citizen.''

Protecting vital information inside a company is important - just as important as protecting information regarding a country. With the company that I work for, there is many steps taken to protect each employee's information as well as important company details. First all, all information obtained via the internet is processed via a secured server. Our private information is never viewed by anyone other than the company owner, which allows each employee to relax. The majority of our business is conducted via the internet, and with the secure server in place - our information never falls into the hands of those that may have malicious intent.

It is important that each company start securing vital information on the inside, rather than waiting for episodes such as hacking to take place. With a strong protection policy in place, the risk of information falling into the wrong hands can be eliminated. As we have all witnessed, relying on the government to take care of problems such as this can prove ineffective, especially with officials in office that have no problem violating our rights.

Sources: Associated Press