Former NSA contractor sentenced to 9 years for hoarding classified data

[Bubbajim]

Why it matters: Former National Security Agency contractor Harold Martin was sentenced on Friday after what is likely to be the longest running breach of U.S. classified information the country has ever seen. Following 20 years of smuggling out files and information from his job at the NSA, Mr. Martin has been given nine years in jail.

Readers of this site are more likely than most to appreciate just how much data 50 terabytes is. That's the amount of data investigators discovered had been pilfered by Harold Martin, a former contractor who had worked for the National Security Agency (NSA) and other security services. And that's just the electronically-stored information -- Martin also had stacks of hard-copy files and documents, all kept in his Baltimore home.

The data comprised information on the United States' offensive cyber capabilities, spying methods, foreign cyber threats, and details of the NSA's own communications infrastructure. Prosecutors in his case say that they had no proof Martin shared the information with any adversarial powers, but if he had, it would have been a veritable gold mine.

Harold Martin pleaded guilty during his hearing in March this year, and on Friday was sentenced to nine years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. As he has been in prison since his arrest in 2016, his three years already served will count as part of his overall sentence, which was handed down by District Judge Richard Bennett.

Martin's defense had portrayed him as a hoarder rather than a traitor. Without evidence that he had supplied the information to anyone, the charges were limited to 'willful retention of national defense information.'

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this story is just how long Martin got away with his behavior. He first started gathering information and taking it home in 1996, and it wasn't until 2016 that he was arrested.

Interestingly, at the time of his arrest Martin was working for Booz Allen Hamilton -- the same agency that employed another infamous NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, though there is no other connection between the two.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/81054-former-nsa-contractor-sentenced-9-years-hoarding-classified.html

 

[toooooot]

I bet all these years who imagined how much money he d get by selling it on darknet.
Now the sucker will have 9 years to regret he wasnt careful enough and wont be making any cash from it.

I personally think that it would be a good idea that when proved beyond reasonable doubt, a government employees convicted for felonies should not be allowed to keep their comfy retirement benefits.
Leave them on the very minimum an honest cashier earnings or what someone from a minimum or part time wage earns.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I personally think that it would be a good idea that when proved beyond reasonable doubt, a government employees convicted for felonies should not be allowed to keep their comfy retirement benefits.

That is the point in prison. Once out their time has been paid. You can not deny them their retirement. After all it is not like they can add to it while serving time.

 

[captaincranky]

That is the point in prison. Once out their time has been paid. You can not deny them their retirement. After all it is not like they can add to it while serving time.

The article states he's a "contractor", not a federal employee. He may not have a direct federal pension which could be stripped from him.

I thought that was the point of sub contractors, that they're accountable for paying their own income taxes. I think he's sort of like an, "Uber driver", of espionage.

 

[PEnnn]

" 20 years of smuggling out files and information from his job at the NSA"

If one were to steal a fraction of that data from Walmart, somebody would have noticed! But the NSA, the most powerful agency on the planet has been napping for 20 years?? Pathetic!!

The whole agency should be shut down, fumigated then allowed to reopen under new management. And I have the feeling they really don't know for sure no data was sold.

 

[treetops]

Instead of spying on us maybe they need to start spying on each other.... "He first started gathering information and taking it home in 1996, and it wasn't until 2016 that he was arrested."

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Any tips for our upcoming Area 51 raid?

 

[Impudicus]

The biggest threat to classified data seems to be the NSA...