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) programmer, whose home computer 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 specific files uploaded for analysis were deleted as soon as researchers realized what they were. But U.S. government sources say the Russians were able to get their hands on the Secret Service's tools through the 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 allege any attempt by Pho to sell them data.
Kaspersky Lab, of course, as we mentioned above has denied any breach or illegal ties to the Russian intelligence services. The security companysignalThey also learned that Pho's computer was infected with malware, meaning anyone could have intercepted the data.