Following the leak of US "top secret" documents, CBS News reported, on Wednesday, that the Pentagon significantly reduced the number of government-employed officials that receive classified information.

According to a US official that preferred to remain anonymous but was cited by the news outlet, the leaked papers were first printed and then photographed before being circulated online. This suggested that it had to be someone who had access to such classified information, which is limited to about 1,000 people.

Moreover, a limited number of printers have the authorization to print classified information. Additionally, the devices authorized for such an action require IDs to function, thus limiting the possibilities even further.

The cited US official said the person or persons involved in the leak will be identified relatively soon given that "the universe of possibilities is relatively small."

While Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that the Pentagon considered the situation "very serious" and pledged to "turn over every rock," it remained that no US official had confirmed or denied the authenticity of the leaked documents.

On the other hand, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned that the leak could have been orchestrated by the Pentagon as part of its “hybrid war” effort against Russia.

The Russian official questioned the authenticity of the documents and argued that "because the US is a party in the conflict [in Ukraine] and is essentially waging a hybrid war against us, such tricks to deceive the enemy, meaning Russia, are possible," adding that "I am not saying anything definitively, but I assume different scenarios are plausible here."

US scrambles to find source of leak, evaluates impact on national security

The Pentagon had said on Sunday that the US is examining the implications of an apparent leak of a number of highly classified information on national security, AFP reported on Monday.

The leak also has US officials scrambling to identify its source, with some experts saying it could be an American rather than an ally, owing to the breadth of the topics addressed in the documents.

"The focus now is on this being a U.S. leak, as many of the documents were only in U.S. hands," Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, told Reuters.

The recent #Pentagon leaks could be the most damaging release of US government information since the 2013 publication of thousands of documents on #WikiLeaks. pic.twitter.com/vbABFNubRY

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) April 11, 2023

Last week, confidential documents were leaked online on platforms such as Discord, Telegram, and Twitter, with US national security secrets concerning China, Ukraine, and the Middle East - including sensitive intelligence reports, Ukraine war plans, and information on allies that the US obtained through spying on them.

This is seen as one of the most serious security breaches since more than 700,000 documents, videos, and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2013.

One of the documents, dated February 23, was said to be labeled "Secret/NoForn" which meant that the content of the document was not meant to be disclosed to any foreign nation.

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