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Ex-NSA techie pleads guilty to selling state secrets to Russia

In Data Breach News
October 24, 2023
Ex-NSA techie pleads guilty to selling state secrets to Russia
National Security Agency -- Ft. Meade

Disgruntled former employees and other malicious insiders are a major source of data breaches and data loss. The Register reports on an insider threat that could have had serious consequences for national security:

A former US National Security Agency techie has plead guilty to six counts of violating the Espionage Act after being caught handing classified information to FBI agents he thought were Russian spies. 

Jareh Sebastian Dalke will be facing up to life in prison when sentenced in April 2024, though in his plea agreement [PDF] the government agreed to seek a sentence no greater than 262 months (just shy of 22 years) “if the government determines [Dalke] has cooperated fully … and the information [he] has provided has been truthful, complete, accurate and of value.” 

Dalke, 31, admitted that he transmitted excerpts from three classified documents, and sent four in their entirety, to an FBI online covert employee (OCE), all of which contained national defense information determined [PDF] to be classified top secret.

Read more at The Register.