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fliptop [soylentnews.org] writes:

A former CIA programmer was sentenced to 40 years in prison [yahoo.com] on Thursday for leaking the US spy agency's most valuable hacking tools to WikiLeaks:

Joshua Schulte, 35, was found guilty in 2022 of espionage and other charges in what the CIA called a "digital Pearl Harbor" -- the largest data breach in the history of the intelligence agency.

[...] US District Judge Jesse Furman sentenced Schulte to 40 years in prison for espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI and child pornography.

Schulte worked for the CIA's elite hacking unit from 2012 to 2016 when he quietly took cyber tools used to break into computer and technology systems, according to court documents.

After quitting his job, he sent them to WikiLeaks, which began publishing the classified data in March 2017.

[...] The leaked data included a collection of malware, viruses, trojans, and "zero day" exploits that, once leaked out, were available for use by foreign intelligence groups, hackers and cyber extortionists around the world, they said.

Previously:

• Ex-CIA Employee Convicted of Leaking 'Vault 7' Secrets to Wikileaks [soylentnews.org]
• Former CIA Software Engineer Joshua Schulte Convicted of Minor Charges, Not Espionage [soylentnews.org]
• Ex-CIA Employee Charged In Leak Of Classified Hacking Tools [soylentnews.org]
• Suspect Identified in C.I.A. Leak was Charged, but Not for the Breach [soylentnews.org]

Original Submission