It is believed his removal of classified files led to a public disclosure of U.S. hacking tools released online by a group identifying as the “Shadow Brokers.”
Former National Security Agency contractor, Harold Martin, 53, has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of illegal retention of more than 50 terabytes of national security information as well as thousands of pages of hard copy documents, many classified “Top Secret” and found in a garden shed and car.
Martin reportedly worked in NSA’s elite hacking unit, Tailored Access Operations, and it is believed his removal of classified files led to a public disclosure of U.S. hacking tools released online by a group identifying as the “Shadow Brokers.” Though, he has not been formally accused for a role in that hack or release. The New York Times reports some of these “tools” have been used for “ransomware” attacks that have shutdown or disrupted businesses or hospitals in the past year.
“The information contained within this document related to United States military and naval establishments and related activities of national preparedness, as well as the defense of the United States against its enemies,” prosecutors said.
Martin is facing no less than 20 felony charges and facing up to 10 years in prison after his arrest in 2016 during a raid of his Maryland home since which he has been held without bail. He has only plead guilty to one count so far, regarding “a March 2014 NSA leadership briefing outlining the development and future plans for a specific NSA organization.”
“The information contained within this document related to United States military and naval establishments and related activities of national preparedness, as well as the defense of the United States against its enemies,” prosecutors said.
POLITICO also reports Martin stole a “massive quantity of classified information over two decades.” It is unclear why it took authorities two decades to realize Martin was illegally hoarding classified data.
Just last month, Nghia Hoang Pho, 27, also a Tailored Access Operations” NSA employee, plead guilty to illegally taking the agency’s classified information home, including documents believed to have then be stolen from his home computer by hackers working for Russian intelligence.