A New York federal court on Wednesday indicted a former CIA programmer for leaking critical CIA hacking tools to WikiLeaks in 2017, two years after the initial lawsuit ended in failure.
Joshua Schulte, 33, worked for the CIA’s Special Hackers Unit and quietly obtained Vault 7 tools used by the CIA to hack into computers and technological systems. He submitted it to WikiLeaks after he left his job.
Vault 7 is a collection of malware, viruses, Trojan horses and other vulnerabilities that, once leaked, can be exploited by foreign intelligence groups, hackers and online ransomware around the world.
Prosecutors said Schulte was an irate employee who leaked 8,761 documents to damage the agency.
In a statement following the conviction, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “Schult was aware that the collateral damage from his retaliation could pose an extreme threat to this country if exposed, rendering him useless.”
He added that the leak of these documents “has had a devastating effect on our intelligence agencies, providing important intelligence information to those who want to harm us.”
Schulte was one of the first suspects after WikiLeaks began releasing classified documents. But in September 2017, he was quietly accused of having a large amount of child pornography on his computer. Charges related to the theft and passing of national defense information under the Espionage Act were later added.
In 2020, a jury convicted him only of perjury and contempt of court. On Wednesday, a new jury found Schulte guilty of eight counts of the Espionage Act and one count of obstruction of justice.
Each of the espionage charges can carry a penalty of up to ten years in prison.
