Snowden leaks help ISIS evade US intel, report says

June 5, 2014: Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden participates in a conversation via video with John Perry Barlow, co-founder and vice chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation at the 2014 Personal Democracy Forum at New York University in New York. (AP)

The former deputy director of the National Security Agency says Islamic State militants are using the top-secret data leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden to evade U.S. intelligence.

Chris Inglis, who held the post when Snowden began leaking a flood of documents to the news media last year, told The Washington Times that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has "clearly" studied Snowden's documents and taken action.

Snowden “went way beyond disclosing things that bore on privacy concerns,” said Inglis, who retired in January. “Having disclosed all of those methods, or at least some degree of those methods, it would be impossible to imagine that, as intelligent as they are in the use of technology, in the employment of communications for their own purposes, it’s impossible to imagine that they wouldn’t understand how they might be at risk to intelligence services around the world, not the least of which is the U.S.

"And they necessarily do what they think is in their best interest to defend themselves,” he told the paper.

Some of the documents turned over by Snowden provided precise details on how the U.S. tracks an Al Qaeda operative.

According to the Times, some officials argue that ISIS operatives reading the series of Snowden documents and news stories know what types of communication to avoid or how to make them more secure.

Click here to read more from The Washington Times.