Edward Snowden claims that he first considered exposing government secrets while working for the CIA overseas in 2007. "Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," Snowden told The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald. "I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good." While speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CIO Network on Tuesday, Mike McConnell, a Booz Allen vice chairman and former NSA director, shared new details on how Snowden made off with vast amounts of the company's data. By McConnell's unflattering account, the key moment came when the NSA didn't offer Snowden the job he wanted. "At this point, he being narcissistic and having failed at most everything he did, he decides now I'm going to turn on them," he said.

McConnell suggests that there was truly nothing noble behind Snowden's flip, as he'd cheated his way into the position he was offered at the NSA. After leaving the NSA to work for a company in Japan, Snowden decided that he wanted to return. Backing up a claim made in 60 Minutes' recent NSA puff piece, McConnell alleges that Snowden broke into the agency's computer system and stole an admittance test with the answers. "Then he took the test and he aced it," McConnell said. "He walked in and said 'you should hire me because I scored high on the test."

After the NSA's initial offer, Snowden supposedly said he deserved a higher rank. When they refused, he turned down the job and applied to Booz Allen, with the intention of stealing documents, according to McConnell. "He targeted my company because we enjoy more access than most other firms," he said.

McConnell went on to explain that the NSA has four tiers of information access. Snowden had unfettered access to levels one and two, which include reports that don't reveal sources, and very limited access to the third level that "gets into how we do what we do." In the three months he was employed by Booz Allen, Snowden absconded with 1.7 million to 1.8 million documents, about a million of which contained "no kidding insights to understanding U.S. intelligence services," McConnell said.

Snowden, who has been increasingly vocal in recent weeks, has yet to offer a rebuttal, but his associate Glenn Greenwald made his feelings on McConnell known before he even met the leaker. In a 2010 Salon article, he said of the former NSA chief, "Few people have blurred the line between public office and private profit more egregiously and shamelessly than he."

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Booz Allen Exec Describes How Snowden Stole Millions of Documents

Summary: Following the Edward Snowden wake-up call, three in four defense contractors have already made significant changes in their IT security and hiring practices.

Both the volume and the sensitivity of the information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has compelled US defense contractors to drastically overhaul their hiring practices and reevaluate employees' data access privileges.

The new study conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of security software provider ThreatTrack Security found that 75 percent of IT and security managers employed by defense contractors have changed their cybersecurity processes in a variety of ways.

Of the 100 respondents, 41 percent said they've implemented stricter hiring practices and 39 percent acknowledged that their own IT administrative rights have been restricted.

The depth and breadth of the Snowden leaks were also a wake-up call to enterprise companies who understand and appreciate the immense value of the intellectual property housed and accessed on their corporate networks.

"It's interesting to note that while defense contractors seem to have better security practices in place and are more transparent than many companies in the private sector, they are finding the current cyber threat onslaught just as difficult to deal with," said ThreatTrack Security CEO Julian Waits, Sr., in the report.

Fifty-five percent of defense contractors are now providing more general cybersecurity awareness training to their employees and 52 percent have reviewed or reevaluated employees' data access privileges.

It doesn't help, contractors said, that it's become increasingly difficult to find and hire qualified security staffers at a time when new threats are multiplying at an exponential rate.

Twenty-six percent of contractors said there was a shortage of "highly skilled" security personnel on staff and their existing IT security team is routinely torn between resolving new malware sample analyses and cleaning malware off executives' devices.

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Snowden aftermath: Defense contractors revamp policies, practices