The NSA hacker who "lost" important tools of his service, from his personal computer, admitted his guilt.
The service partner confirmed at the Baltimore Regional Court that he took copies of the classified software in his home on a Windows computer running Kaspersky Labs antivirus.
Nghia Hoang Pho, 67, is a Vietnam-born American citizen living in Ellicott, Maryland. Pho is very likely to "receive" six to eight years in prison when the trial, scheduled for April 2018, takes place.
Pho is a TAO (Tailored Operations Access) developer, whose home computer a software was running security of Kaspersky Lab allegedly used in one way or another by the Russian authorities to intercept NSN's highly confidential documents and tools of 2015.
According to Kaspersky, the security software on Pho's computer detected copies of the NSA tools as new malware and uploaded them to the cloud for further analysis by researchers of companys.
According to the company, the specific files that were uploaded for analysis were deleted as soon as the researchers realized what they were. But US government sources say the Russians were able to take their secret service tools through Kaspersky's protection package, although the company continues to deny any direct involvement.
The indictment of Pho he says:
"Beginning in 2010 and continuing through March 2015, Pho removed and retained U.S. government documents. containing national defense information, including information classified as top secret. "
"This material was in both print and digital form and was kept at Pho's home in Maryland."
The indictment does not mention Pho's attempt to sell the data.
Kaspersky Lab of course, as we said above, has denied any violation or illegal links with the Russian intelligence services. The security company also noted that Pho's computer had been infected by malicious software, meaning anyone could have intercepted the data.
