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A former National Security Agency employee who worked at Tailored Access Operations has pleaded guilty to willful retention of national defense information, the same charge Harold T. Martin III faces:
A former National Security Agency employee admitted on Friday that he had illegally taken from the agency classified documents believed to have subsequently been stolen from his home computer by hackers working for Russian intelligence.
Nghia H. Pho, 67, of Ellicott City, Md., pleaded guilty to one count of willful retention of national defense information, an offense that carries a possible 10-year sentence. Prosecutors agreed not to seek more than eight years, however, and Mr. Pho's attorney, Robert C. Bonsib, will be free to ask for a more lenient sentence. He remains free while awaiting sentencing on April 6.
Mr. Pho had been charged in secret, though some news reports had given a limited description of the case. Officials unsealed the charges on Friday, resolving the long-running mystery of the defendant's identity.
Mr. Pho, who worked as a software developer for the N.S.A., was born in Vietnam but is a naturalized United States citizen. Prosecutors withheld from the public many details of his government work and of the criminal case against him, which is linked to a continuing investigation of Russian hacking.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @09:57AM (5 children)
Who really believes that "Russian Hackers" exploited the Kaspersky software to steal the documents?
Seems more likely that the AV software worked as designed, detected potential malware and submitted various archives containing malware and documents[1]. Other AV software have similar features - submit samples to "Cloud".
Conclusion: if you want to detect NSA zero-day malware you might consider adding Kaspersky software to your arsenal. And the NSA et all aren't happy with that so they'd prefer if less people use Kaspersky due to evil "Russian Hackers"...
[1] https://betanews.com/2017/10/26/kaspersky-nsa-files/ [betanews.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by jcross on Tuesday December 05 2017, @02:04PM
Sounds somewhat plausible. Another possible narrative I thought of (leaning in the other direction) is that the guy was compromised somehow and then instructed to install Kaspersky and take the documents home. I mean it's a great cover story if/when the leak gets found out. Maybe instead of arranging sophisticated dead drops, the spies of the future will always have their documents "stolen" from them, since unlike in the old days you'll never be expected to notice when someone copies a file and exfiltrates it over the internet.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 05 2017, @06:58PM (3 children)
Who really believes that "Russian Hackers" exploited the Kaspersky software to steal the documents?
Israel's intelligence officers watched them do it. [nytimes.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @08:04PM (1 child)
Who believes Israeli intelligence officers?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 06 2017, @12:49AM
Ummm.... jews?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 06 2017, @10:08AM
That's like believing the Mossad when they claim the Russians robbed your house because they were there watching the whole thing when it happened.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Tuesday December 05 2017, @02:38PM (2 children)
- so, mr. Pho, you were not born here?
- nyet... er... no, I am vietnamese by birth.
(the NSA head hunter turns his notebook to a page named "Countries we have been at war with" and begins to scan the list)
- "Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, ISIS, North Korea, Iraq, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia, Panama... OK, looks clean. Welcome aboard, mr Pho."
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Tuesday December 05 2017, @06:33PM (1 child)
Some of us are old enough to remember that the USA was at war* with Vietnam back in the 1960's.
*the US Congress never actually made a formal declaration of war as required under the US Constitution so the conflict was technically a "military action", just like every "war" the US has engaged in since.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday December 05 2017, @07:14PM
The US is one of the most peaceful countries in the world, according to the US Senate. The last time they declared war was on Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, 75 and a half years ago.
https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/h_multi_sections_and_teasers/WarDeclarationsbyCongress.htm [senate.gov]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @06:18PM (1 child)
Did HRC retain "national defense information"? You'd think with such an juicy target, prosecutors would bound over themselves to file charges (haha).
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday December 06 2017, @12:52AM
She wasn't using Kaspersky AV?