How the suspected NSA leaker Reality Leigh Winner was caught

Paper creases.

That appears to be the clue that helped authorities determine the identity of a National Security Agency contractor who leaked a highly classified report. 

The arrest of the suspected leaker was announced on Monday about an hour following the publication of a report by the The Intercept, which describes Russian hacking efforts in the days before the US presidential election in November last year.

Authorities were able to identify the alleged leaker, Reality Leigh Winner, 25, after paper copies of the documents she allegedly provided to The Intercept were shared with the NSA for verification purposes. 

“The NSA notices that there’s a fold or a crease in this document, and that tips them off that it was printed at some point,” said Joseph Cox, a reporter who’s been following this story for VICE’s tech website Motherboard. “The NSA go and check who printed this document around this time frame. There's around six people, and then they narrow it down to this Reality Winner."

Winner has been charged with “gathering, transmitting or losing defense information,” says The Washington Post. The criminal charges are the first filed in a leak investigation under the Trump administration, according to the newspaper.

We talked more with Cox about his reporting on the situation. Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

[[entity_id:"169058" entity_type:"node" entity_title:"Govt Leak Poll"]]