NSA contractor sentenced to prison for huge theft of classified U.S.
data
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[July 20, 2019]
(Reuters) - A former National
Security Agency contractor was sentenced in Maryland to nine years in
prison on Friday for stealing huge amounts of classified material from
U.S. intelligence agencies over two decades though officials never found
proof he shared it with anyone.
Harold Martin, 54, also received three years of supervised release from
U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett in Baltimore after pleading guilty
to willful retention of national defense information, the Justice
Department said in a statement.
In what officials have called perhaps the biggest breach of U.S.
classified information on record, Martin was accused of stealing from
the NSA, CIA, U.S. Cyber Command and National Reconnaissance Office
starting in 1996. The data he was accused of stealing included 2014 NSA
reports detailing intelligence information "regarding foreign cyber
issues" that contained targeting information and "foreign cyber
intrusion techniques."
The list of pilfered documents also included an NSA user's guide for an
intelligence-gathering tool and a 2007 file with details about specific
daily operations, the indictment against him said.
"Instead of respecting the trust given to him by the American people,
Martin violated that trust and put our nation's security at risk,"
Assistant Attorney General John Demers said. "This sentence will hold
Mr. Martin accountable for his dangerous and unlawful actions."
Prosecutors have said Martin's actions risked the disclosure of top
secret information to America's enemies. One of their allegations was
that Martin talked online with people in Russian and other languages but
they never found proof he shared stolen information with anyone.
His defense team portrayed him as an eccentric hoarder. Martin's
attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
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The National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters is seen in Fort
Meade, Maryland, U.S. February 14, 2018. REUTERS/Sait Serkan Gurbuz/File
Photo
From 1993 to 2016, Martin was employed with at least seven firms and
was assigned as a contractor to work in several government agencies,
the Justice Department said.
His positions, which involved work on highly classified projects
involving government computer systems, gave him various security
clearances that routinely provided him access to top-secret
information, it said.
The government has not said what, if anything, Martin did with the
highly sensitive material that, according to the court documents, he
hoarded at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland and his vehicle.
Martin was working for Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp when he was
taken into custody in 2016. Booz Allen also had employed Edward
Snowden, who leaked a trove of secret files to news organizations in
2013 that exposed vast domestic and international surveillance
operations carried out by the NSA.
When FBI agents raided Martin's home south of Baltimore they found
stacks of documents and electronic storage devices amounting to 50
terabytes of files, according to prosecutors.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Will Dunham)
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