Collaborate Disseminate
An internal investigation into the 2016 CIA breach condemned the agency’s security measures, saying it “focused more on building up cyber tools than keeping them secure.” Continue reading Theft of CIA’s ‘Vault 7’ Secrets Tied to ‘Woefully Lax” Security
The US is expected to press for a retrial in the high-stakes trial of Joshua Schulte, suspected of raiding the CIA’s cyber arsenal. Continue reading Trial for accused CIA leaker ends in hung jury
A federal judge in New York on Monday declared a mistrial in the case of a former CIA software engineer who was accused of stealing a massive trove of the agency’s classified hacking and tools and leaking it to WikiLeaks whistleblower website.
While t… Continue reading Ex-CIA Accused of Leaking Secret Hacking Tools to WikiLeaks Gets Mistrial
A New York City jury was unable to reach a verdict Monday on a number of charges against a former CIA engineer accused of orchestrating the largest leak in agency history. A federal jury in New York found Joshua Schulte guilty on charges of contempt of court and lying to the FBI after a monthlong trial and four days of deliberation. Jurors could not reach a decision on more serious charges of illegally transferring national defense information; unauthorized access to classified information; and theft of government property. A hearing will be held on March 26 to determine the next steps in the case. U.S. prosecutors argued that Schulte leaked a trove CIA hacking tools to WikiLeaks in 2016 to retaliate against co-workers and agency management for what he perceived as unfair treatment during his employment. Defense attorneys worked to convince jurors that the CIA had failed to secure its most sensitive […]
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Continue reading Vault 7 court case ends in mistrial on most serious charges
When WikiLeaks released a trove of diplomatic cables in 2010 on everything from terrorism to Russian President Vladimir Putin to computer intrusions, it set off shockwaves through the Department of Defense and intelligence community over the knowledge being dumped into the public domain. Now we know that unauthorized release even impacted U.S. Cyber Command. A document obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request details Cyber Command’s knowledge of what was revealed in the infamous WikiLeaks dump. The document, a Cyber Command fusion cell situational awareness report, suggests the Pentagon knew who was behind a broad cyber-espionage operation known as Operation Aurora and was worried about that information becoming public, and what adversaries could learn about sensitive U.S. cyber-operations as a result The document, which was obtained by George Washington University’s National Security Archive and shared with CyberScoop, is a rare look into how Cyber Command, the DOD, and the intelligence community tracks adversaries in cyberspace and […]
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A former CIA employee accused of being responsible for the largest leak in agency history thinks his case should be thrown out of court. Defense attorneys for Joshua Schulte, who’s on trial now in the U.S. Southern District of New York for allegedly providing WikiLeaks with a cache of the agency’s hacking tools, filed a motion on Tuesday for a mistrial. The argument undergirding the request remains classified, though the defense says the request is “based on Brady and other violations.” The mention of “Brady” is an apparent reference to the Brady Rule, which requires prosecutors to provide any favorable evidence to a defendant that could negate the guilt of the accused. The request comes after prosecutors and the defense have sparred over the questioning of a witness who testified against Schulte. The witness, known only as “Michael,” was placed on administrative leave during his time at the CIA when he […]
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Continue reading Joshua Schulte’s defense asks for a mistrial in the Vault 7 case
Defense attorneys representing the former CIA developer accused of carrying out the largest leak in agency history are trying to call U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a witness. Joshua Schulte, 31, is on trial in the U.S. Southern District of New York for allegedly abusing his access in 2016 as a CIA employee to steal the agency’s hacking tools and eventually like them to WikiLeaks. While the prosecution has argued that Schulte endangered the security of the U.S. by stealing the so-called Vault 7 files, the defense has argued that so many CIA employees had access to the classified documents that it would be impossible for investigators to know who was behind the leak. The defense is argues that Pompeo, who was CIA director when WikiLeaks began posting the stolen material, “took an active role in the investigation and appears to have first-hand, non-hearsay information that is relevant […]
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Continue reading Joshua Schulte’s attorneys are trying to call Mike Pompeo in the Vault 7 trial
So many people had access to the computer network used by CIA software engineers that U.S. officials still don’t know who is actually behind the leak of the agency’s hacking tools, according to the defense attorney for an accused leaker. The lawyer for Joshua Schulte, a former CIA employee on trial for allegedly providing the tools to WikiLeaks, told the jury Tuesday that the government networks their client worked on were so insecure that investigators will never know if Schulte, or some other intruder, carried out the theft. Schulte, 31, faces 11 criminal counts in connection with leaking the so-called Vault 7 files to WikiLeaks. In 2017, the controversial organization spent six months publishing documents detailing the CIA’s ability to hack into mobile operating systems, messaging apps, smart TVs and other consumer technology. Prosecutors have alleged Schulte stole the files in order to cause as much harm as possible to […]
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Nearly three years after WikiLeaks began publishing secret CIA hacking tools, the legal team for the former agency employee who allegedly stole those files will try to convince a jury he did so in order to reveal the secrets behind the tools uses by the government to break into widely used consumer technology. Based on the evidence, it’s shaping up to be a difficult argument. That’s before you consider the current environment: where the U.S. justice system has taken a hard-line approach to those who go public with classified information. While the U.S. has charged former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte with transmitting files detailing the agency’s arsenal of hacking tools, his lawyers have given no indication that he acted out of conscience. Government prosecutors, meanwhile, will introduce evidence starting Monday that Schulte, now 31, was motivated by nothing more than revenge for what he perceived to be mistreatment by […]
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Continue reading As Vault 7 trial begins, Joshua Schulte’s attorneys will argue he’s a whistleblower
With less than two weeks before a former Central Intelligence Agency contractor is scheduled to strand trial for allegedly leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to admit evidence detailing the defendant’s behavior behind bars, including alleged communications with reporters. The defendant, Joshua Schulte, has been charged with stealing national defense information, then providing it to WikiLeaks, which then published a trove of CIA hacking tools known as the Vault7 files. Schulte was arrested in August 2017 and has been awaiting his trial in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. While detained, Schulte sought to “drum up media attention for his case and to paint himself as an innocent man,” prosecutors wrote in a Jan. 21 court filing. This public relations campaign involved writing a series of articles that he sought to distribute to the media, urging family members to post his missives on a public Facebook […]
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Continue reading U.S. says accused Vault 7 leaker tried orchestrating PR campaign from jail cell