President’s Advisors Used Sting to Catch Staffer Tweeting Under Pseudonym

The author behind @NatSecWonk was identified using a counterintelligence-style ruse

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The National Security Council staffer who was fired for tweeting under a pseudonym was caught after a group of the president’s advisors used a counterintelligence-style sting worthy of a John le Carré spy novel.

Stung by leaked internal information and disparaging comments posted on the Twitter account @NacSecWonk, some Obama Administration officials tried to identify the person behind the tweets by letting harmless but false information slip and seeing if it would pop up in a tweet, according to the Washington PostLast week, Jofi Joseph, the nonproliferation director of the National Security Council, was fired for exhibiting poor judgment while working in an office that handles sensitive secrets about national security.

It’s not clear whether the sting led directly to Joseph being identified as the person behind the Twitter account. But in a statement, Joseph said, “I deeply regret violating the trust and confidence placed in me.”

[Washington Post]