Federal officials have arrested a contractor for the NSA accused of stealing code the agency used to hack into the networks of foreign governments, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Authorities detained Harold Thomas Martin III, a Maryland resident and an employee of NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, after raiding his home and allegedly discovering six documents containing Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information. Investigators discovered an additional $1,000 in property belonging to the federal government, the Justice Department said.
The Aug. 27 arrest was made after the August publication of NSA data by an online group calling itself “Shadow Brokers.” The group claimed to have obtained the information by hacking the agency, but experts said it was probably taken by an insider with access to the agency’s Tailored Access Operations division, responsible for conducting operations against foreign governments and intelligence agencies.
Martin had served as a lieutenant in the Navy. He enlisted in May 1987, was commissioned as a surface warfare officer in July 1988 and served until March 2000, according to Navy records. He was assigned to the fast combat support ship Seattle and earned eight awards during his nearly 13 years of service, including the Kuwait Liberation Medal and a Pistol Marksmanship Ribbon with expert device.
Lazy: This guy and @Snowden both worked at @BoozAllen, so they are the same.
Not lazy: Booz must have a unique contract. Let’s investigate.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 5, 2016
The incident could mark the second time in three years that a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor has leaked information from the agency. Former contractor Edward Snowden made headlines around the globe for leaking information about the agency’s expansive surveillance regime in 2013.
Experts said in the weeks following the August leak that the latest data appeared to have originated in October 2013, five months after Snowden left the agency. The Snowden files included enough information to verify the authenticity of the data published by the Shadow Brokers, but Snowden ultimately refrained from disclosing information about the agency’s offensive tools, choosing to focus instead on its surveillance programs.
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In a Wednesday message on Twitter, Snowden said observers should use the situation to question the company’s unique relationship with the NSA. “Lazy: This guy and Snowden both worked at Booz Allen, so they are the same,” Snowden said. “Not lazy: Booz must have a unique contract. Let’s investigate.”
Jacqueline Klimas contributed to this report.
