Also "In the fall of 2010, the CIA's communication systems in China had been compromised by the Chinese, leading to dozens of suspected intelligence officers being killed and the largest intelligence breach in decades." https://steemit.com/news/@sevvie/ciafailuresleadto30spieskilledinchina-1pl8dkz2yi  see also NYT http://archive.is/58uWT  More than a decade of work building intelligence networks was unraveled in an instant, and until very recently, no one knew how.  Right.  As 2010 was coming to a close, the regular flow of intelligence coming from China had all but dried up.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton%27s_tenure_as_Secretary_of_State#/media/File:2009_0121_clinton_290_1.jpg EDIT:  "A Bad Choice of Software"  Back in 2010, assets contacting their handlers was done over the internet using a laptop and a temporary communications system. When the CIA begins working with a new asset or source, they are given this specially-designed program to make contact with their handler, in case they turn out to be a double agent. In theory, there is no way this program should be able to communicate with the CIA's main systems, but according to ForeignPolicy.com's sources, there was a bug that existed in this system; anyone with the program could use it to gain access to the CIA's main covert communications platform. In the words of one source, the CIA had "fucked up the firewall."