Law enforcement officials reportedly lack evidence that would tie a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor accused of stealing NSA hacking tools to an online leak of data in August.
Court documents say 51-year-old Harold Thomas Martin III, who goes by “Hal,” surreptitiously took “many terabytes” of data home from the National Security Agency over the course of his 16-year career in the intelligence community. The data is equivalent to millions of books, and reportedly contains information from the agency’s Tailored Access Operations division, or TAO, which is responsible for hacking foreign governments.
However, according to unnamed law enforcement officials who spoke with the New York Times, investigators lack evidence to suggest that data was obtained by anyone else, either as a result of Martin giving it to them or of Martin being hacked.
Data obtained from TAO, representing an unknown portion of what was held by Martin, was published online in August by a group calling itself the “Shadow Brokers.” The group said it was attempting to sell the information for $500 million. But experts said the leak, which included data from October 2013 and earlier, was more likely facilitated by a foreign government aiming to embarrass the United States.
Martin has reportedly maintained that he took the information home to assist with his doctoral studies. He was seeking to a complete a doctorate in information systems for the University of Maryland. Commenting online last year, Martin said he was motivated by the “battles ahead.”
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“The battles ahead will require a special breed of warrior,” Martin wrote. “It’s really a calling, and something the individual has to want to do as a profession, due to the sacrifices required to be top flight in this new, electronic, version of the great game.”
If investigators fail to connect Martin to the Shadow Brokers, it will affirm a belief held by many that the agency remains plagued by moles. Officials have widely suspected for years that Russian operatives have access to the NSA’s most sensitive data.
If Martin is not charged with an active attempt to conduct espionage, he faces a likely maximum of one year in prison for mishandling classified information, and an additional maximum of ten years for theft of government property.
