The NSA hacker who "lost" important tools of his service, from his personal computer, admitted his guilt.
The agency's partner confirmed to the U.S. District Court in Baltimore that it obtained copies of the classified software in home of, 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 she was running a security software 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 the Pho's computer detected the copies of NSA tools as a new malware and clustered it to the cloud for further analysis by the company's researchers.
According to the company, the specifics archives που ανέβηκαν για ανάλυση, διαγράφηκαν αμέσως μόλις συνειδητοποίησαν οι ερευνητές το τι ακριβώς ήταν. Κυβερνητικές πηγές των ΗΠΑ όμως αναφέρουν ότι οι Ρώσοι μπόρεσαν να πάρουν τα χέρια τους τα εργαλεία της μυστικής υπηρεσίας μέσω του packetunder Kaspersky's protection, 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.
