Former CIA employee sentenced to 40 years in prison for the largest information leak in government history

Former CIA official Joshua Schulte was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison for the largest data breach in CIA history and other charges.

Schulte was charged with espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI and child pornography, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.

“Joshua Schulte betrayed his country by committing the most brazen and heinous espionage crime in American history. harm,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

Schulte, who worked as a computer engineer at the CIA’s Cyber ​​Intelligence Center, was accused of passing classified data to WikiLeaks.

The Associated Press reports that leaks reveal how the CIA hacked Apple and Android smartphones in its efforts to conduct overseas espionage and turn internet-connected televisions into listening devices, Schulte said. was convicted in 2022 on federal charges.

Schulte, who represented him in court, said anyone could have committed the violation. Throughout the trial, prosecutors argued that Schulte orchestrated the leak because he believed authorities were disrespecting him by ignoring his complaints about working conditions, the newswire reported.

After a “personnel dispute” between Mr. Schulte and another developer, Mr. Schulte was transferred to another branch of the center in March 2016, where he abused his administrative privileges to gain access he should not have had. I have granted myself access to the project. He then stole the files, committed the largest data breach in CIA history, and used his computer to send the files to WikiLeaks, the Justice Department said.

After WikiLeaks released classified information, it “severely harmed the CIA’s ability to gather foreign intelligence against America’s adversaries. It directly jeopardized CIA personnel, programs, and assets. And the CIA The incident has caused “significant damage” to the country’s national security and has been dubbed “Digital Pearl Harbor,” the statement said.

“Once the FBI captured Mr. Schulte, he stepped up his efforts to further harm this country by waging what he called an ‘information war’ by releasing classified information from behind bars.” Williams’ statement said. “All the while, Schulte collected thousands and thousands of videos and images of children being subjected to sickening abuse for his own personal gratification.”