A former CIA programmer was found guilty of leaking valuable US intelligence agency hacking tools to WikiLeaks in federal court in New York on Wednesday, two years after his case was overturned.
Joshua Schulte, 33, was working for the CIA’s elite hacking unit when he secretly obtained “Vault 7” tools used to hack into computers and technology systems and sent them to the anti-privacy group after quitting his job.
“Vault 7” was a collection of malware, viruses, Trojans, and malicious snippets that, once leaked, were made available by foreign intelligence groups and hackers around the world. According to prosecutors, Schulte was a resentful employee who leaked 8,761 documents to harm the agency.
“Schulte was well aware that the side-effect of his action, if made public, could pose an extraordinary threat to this nation,” attorney Damian Williams said. The leak “had a devastating impact on our intelligence community and provided crucial information to those who wanted to harm us,” he said.
Schulte was a suspect when Wikileaks started releasing secrets, but in 2017 he was accused of only having a large collection of child pornography on his computer. Fees were added later for theft and transmission of national security information.
In 2020, a jury convicted him of only minor charges. On Wednesday, a new jury found Schulte guilty of eight counts under the Espionage Act and one obstruction of justice. He is currently facing a separate lawsuit for child pornography.
The leak, which surprised the CIA in March 2017, was cataloged as the most damaging classified material loss in intelligence agency history.
source: Noticias
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