Tag Archive for: ExCIA

Ex-CIA computer engineer gets 40 years in prison for giving spy agency hacking secrets to WikiLeaks


NEW YORK — A former CIA software engineer was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday after his convictions for what the government described as the biggest theft of classified information in CIA history and for possession of child sexual abuse images and videos.

The bulk of the sentence imposed on Joshua Schulte, 35, in Manhattan federal court came for an embarrassing public release of a trove of CIA secrets by WikiLeaks in 2017. He has been jailed since 2018.

“We will likely never know the full extent of the damage, but I have no doubt it was massive,” Judge Jesse M. Furman said as he announced the sentence.

The so-called Vault 7 leak revealed how the CIA hacked Apple and Android smartphones in overseas spying operations, and efforts to turn internet-connected televisions into listening devices. Prior to his arrest, Schulte had helped create the hacking tools as a coder at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

In requesting a life sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney David William Denton Jr. said Schulte was responsible for “the most damaging disclosures of classified information in American history.”

Given a chance to speak, Schulte complained mostly about harsh conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, calling his cell, “My torture cage.”

But he also claimed that prosecutors had once offered him a plea deal that would have called for a 10-year prison sentence and that it was unfair of them to now seek a life term. He said he objected to the deal because he would have been required to relinquish his right to appeal.

“This is not justice the government seeks, but vengeance,” Schulte said.

Immediately afterward, the judge criticized some of Schulte’s half-hour of remarks, saying he was “blown away” by Schulte’s “complete lack or remorse and acceptance of responsibility.”

The judge said Schulte was “not driven by any sense of altruism,” but instead was “motivated by anger, spite and perceived grievance” against others at the agency who he believed had ignored his complaints about the work environment.

Furman said Schulte continued his crimes from behind bars by trying to leak more classified materials and by creating a hidden…

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Ex-CIA Officer Imprisoned For ‘Heinous Crimes Of Espionage’


CIA 3d rendering of American flag cyber

iStockphoto

Ex-CIA officer Joshua Adam Schulte sent to prison for “committing some of the most brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history.”

The 35-year-old Schulte was sentenced to 40 years in prison for crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, and making false statements to the FBI.

Schulte was employed by the CIA as a software developer in the Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) from 2012 to 2016.

“Mr. Schulte severely harmed U.S. national security and directly risked the lives of CIA personnel, persisting in his efforts even after his arrest,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement.

In March 2016, Schulte was moved within branches of CCI as a result of personnel disputes between Schulte and another developer. Following that transfer, in April 2016, Schulte abused his administrator powers to grant himself administrator privileges over a development project from which he had been removed as a result of the branch change. Schulte’s abuse of administrator privileges was detected, and CCI leadership directed that administrator privileges would immediately be transferred from developers, including Schulte, to another division. Schulte was also given a warning about self-granting administrator privileges that had previously been revoked.

Schulte had, however, secretly opened an administrator session on one of the servers before his privileges were removed. On April 20, 2016, after other developers had left the CCI office, Schulte used his secret server administrator session to execute a series of cyber-maneuvers on the CIA network to restore his revoked privileges, break in to the backups, steal copies of the entire CCI tool development archives (the Stolen CIA Files), revert the network back to its prior state, and delete hundreds of log files in an attempt to cover his tracks. Schulte’s theft of the Stolen CIA Files is the largest data breach in CIA history.

From his home computer, Schulte then transmitted the Stolen CIA Files to WikiLeaks, using anonymizing tools recommended by WikiLeaks to potential leakers, such as the Tails operating system and the…

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Ex-CIA Employee Convicted in Theft of Covert Hacking Info


Joshua Schulte Is Guilty on Nine Counts Ranging From Espionage to Obstruction

Ex-CIA Employee Convicted in Theft of Covert Hacking Info

A former CIA programmer charged with spilling the agency’s top-secret hacking toolbox online is guilty after a federal jury returned a verdict on all counts.

See Also: OnDemand | Fireside Chat | Zero Tolerance: Controlling The Landscape Where You’ll Meet Your Adversaries

Joshua Schulte, 33, faces a minimum of 80 years in prison after hearing the verdict Wednesday afternoon in a Manhattan federal court room. The government indicted him on nine counts, including espionage, unauthorized access to a computer and obstruction of justice.

Schulte, who developed penetration tools for the espionage service, sent Wikileaks a trove of techniques used for snooping on iPhones, Cisco networking devices, Skype and even smart TVs (see: 7 Facts: ‘Vault 7’ CIA Hacking Tool Dump by WikiLeaks). WikiLeaks posted more than 8,700 documents online in March 2017, calling the leak “Vault 7” and revealing covert programs with names including CrunchyLimeSkies and McNugget.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called the leak “one of the most brazen and damaging acts” of espionage in American history. Schulte harbored resentment toward the CIA and was “aware that the collateral damage of his retribution could pose an extraordinary threat to this nation,” Williams said after the jury verdict.

For all Schulte’s apparent technical sophistication, a recent New Yorker profile of the now-convicted leaker found he was reckless with his personal security. Schulte also faces charges for possession of child pornography.

A first attempt to prosecute Schulte ended in a mistrial, with the jury convicting him on contempt of court charges as well as of lying to the FBI’s investigators, but not on the espionage charges. Schulte opted to represent himself in the second trial.

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Ex-CIA analyst warns of escalating global cyber-warfare – Insurance Business

Ex-CIA analyst warns of escalating global cyber-warfare  Insurance Business

Expert says while Canada faces a “moderate” level of cyber espionage risk, some groups already have the country in their sights.

“cyber warfare news” – read more