Joshua Schulte, a former CIA engineer, has been found guilty of nine charges related to classified government hacking tools leak to WikiLeaks in 2017.
The leak is considered one of the largest in CIA history and is called Vault 7. The entire ‘vault’ contains files and details about the US government’s hacking tools.
In a statement, CIA spokesperson Tammy Thorp said that the verdict proves the importance of maintaining the security of America’s cyber capabilities.
“It’s critical to the security of the American people, and it’s critical to our advantage against adversaries abroad. As set forth in the trial, unauthorized disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm,” Thorp added.
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Schulte was already in jail for possessing underage p*rn at the time of his trial. The new verdict will increase his prison stay when he is eventually sentenced.
Joshua Schulte had worked for the Operations Support Branch (OSB), a cyberintelligence division of the CIA. He had built many of the hacking tools for the government, with capabilities to monitor or steal information from a person’s device. According to reports, the ex-CIA employee had complained about his former work environment, and when he was ignored, he leaked the files in revenge.
However, he argued that the government was using him as a scapegoat for their failure to secure the hacking tools and claimed that hundreds of people could have been responsible for the CIA hacking tools leak.
Meanwhile, investigators said that they obtained evidence against him through his carelessness; he had stored passwords on his phone which were used to access his encrypted storage.
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