Brian4Liberty
12-06-2017, 01:53 PM
Nghia Hoang Pho, former NSA employee, pleads guilty to retaining top-secret intelligence (https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/2/nghia-hoang-pho-former-nsa-employee-pleads-guilty/)
By Andrew Blake - The Washington Times - Saturday, December 2, 2017
A former employee of the U.S. National Security Agency’s elite hacking team has pleaded guilty in connection with mishandling top-secret documents reportedly stolen afterwards by Russian hackers.
Nghia Hoang Pho, 67, pleaded guilty in a Baltimore federal court Friday to a single count of willfully retaining national defense information in violation of federal law, the Department of Justice announced afterwards.
Pho was hired in 2006 as a developer for the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) team, and from 2010 through 2015 he brought home both hard copies and digital versions of sensitive documents containing closely held secrets, the Justice Department said in a statement.
“In connection with his employment, Pho held various security clearances and had access to national defense and classified information. Pho also worked on highly classified, specialized projects,” the statement said. “Pho removed and retained U.S. government documents and writings that contained national defense information, including information classified as Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information.”
Some of the classified files were transferred onto Pho’s personal computer at some point and likely compromised by Russian hackers, The New York Times reported Friday, citing government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pho is the same former NSA employee implicated in previous reports involving the Russian government and Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based antivirus vendor accused of being a conduit for the Putin administration’s international espionage efforts, both The Times and Reuters reported Friday.
...
Russia has denied hacking U.S. targets, and Kaspersky has denied being in cahoots with Moscow.
...
More: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/2/nghia-hoang-pho-former-nsa-employee-pleads-guilty/
Here's the NSA Employee Who Kept Top Secret Documents at Home (https://thehackernews.com/2017/12/nghia-hoang-pho-nsa.html)
Swati Khandelwal - Friday, December 01, 2017
A former employee—who worked for an elite hacking group operated by the U.S. National Security Agency—pleaded guilty on Friday to illegally taking classified documents home, which were later stolen by Russian hackers.
In a press release published Friday, the US Justice Department announced that Nghia Hoang Pho, a 67-year-old of Ellicott City, Maryland, took documents that contained top-secret national information from the agency between 2010 and 2015.
Pho, who worked as a developer for the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) hacking group at the NSA, reportedly moved the stolen classified documents and tools to his personal Windows computer at home, which was running Kaspersky Lab software.
...
For those unaware, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has even banned Kaspersky Labs' antivirus software from all of its government computers over suspicion of the company's involvement with the Russian intelligence agency and spying fears.
Kaspersky CEO Says He Would Leave If Russia Asked Him To Spy
Though there's no substantial evidence yet available, an article published by US news agency WSJ in October claimed that Kaspersky software helped Russian spies steal highly classified documents and hacking tools belonging to the NSA in 2015 from a staffer's home PC.
However, Kaspersky Labs has denied any direct involvement with the Russian spies in the alleged incident.
Just last month, Kaspersky claimed that its antivirus package running on the Pho's home PC detected the copies of the NSA exploits as malicious software, and uploaded them to its cloud for further analysis by its team of researchers.
According to the company, as soon as its analysts realized that its antivirus had collected more than malicious binaries, the company immediately deleted the copy of the classified documents, and also created a special software tweak, preventing those files from being downloaded again.
Even, when asked if Russian intel agency had ever asked him to help it spy on the West at a media briefing at the Kaspersky's offices in London on Tuesday, CEO Eugene Kaspersky said "They have never asked us to spy on people. Never."
Kaspersky further added that "If the Russian government comes to me and asks me to anything wrong, or my employees, I will move the business out of Russia."
...
More: https://thehackernews.com/2017/12/nghia-hoang-pho-nsa.html
Who Is Nghia Hoang Pho? NSA Employee Stored Documents Stolen By Russian Hackers (http://www.ibtimes.com/who-nghia-hoang-pho-nsa-employee-stored-documents-stolen-russian-hackers-2622723)
By AJ Dellinger - 12/01/17
...Pho is one of three NSA workers in the last two years to be charged with mishandling of classified information. Pho’s case is particularly egregious, as the employee was lifting sensitive documents from the agency for half a decade.
The crackdown on employees and contractors mishandling information comes as the NSA continues its search for the source of a major breach of the agency that resulted in the public release of its hacking tools.
The breach, carried out by an anonymous group of hackers identified as the Shadow Brokers, has caused fits for the agency. Tools developed by the NSA have been used to carry out massive cyber attacks, including the WannaCry ransomware attack that spread to more than one million computers earlier this year. Stolen NSA exploits have led to the shut down of hospitals, communications companies, public transportation and other essential infrastructure.
...
More: http://www.ibtimes.com/who-nghia-hoang-pho-nsa-employee-stored-documents-stolen-russian-hackers-2622723
Bottom line: Seems that the story is intentionally vague, and mostly swept under the rug (you won't see it all day as Breaking News on CNN). An NSA employee, either incompetent or up to something, took home classified information and hacking tools.
His Kapersky anti-virus software identified the hacking tools as malware, and downloaded them for analysis, apparently to servers where the company is located in Russia.
At some point, hackers also got ahold of the tools, and used them for malicious attacks around the globe.
This led to hysterical cries of "Russia hacked us", for which there has been no evidence presented at this point to prove the allegation.
By Andrew Blake - The Washington Times - Saturday, December 2, 2017
A former employee of the U.S. National Security Agency’s elite hacking team has pleaded guilty in connection with mishandling top-secret documents reportedly stolen afterwards by Russian hackers.
Nghia Hoang Pho, 67, pleaded guilty in a Baltimore federal court Friday to a single count of willfully retaining national defense information in violation of federal law, the Department of Justice announced afterwards.
Pho was hired in 2006 as a developer for the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) team, and from 2010 through 2015 he brought home both hard copies and digital versions of sensitive documents containing closely held secrets, the Justice Department said in a statement.
“In connection with his employment, Pho held various security clearances and had access to national defense and classified information. Pho also worked on highly classified, specialized projects,” the statement said. “Pho removed and retained U.S. government documents and writings that contained national defense information, including information classified as Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information.”
Some of the classified files were transferred onto Pho’s personal computer at some point and likely compromised by Russian hackers, The New York Times reported Friday, citing government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pho is the same former NSA employee implicated in previous reports involving the Russian government and Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based antivirus vendor accused of being a conduit for the Putin administration’s international espionage efforts, both The Times and Reuters reported Friday.
...
Russia has denied hacking U.S. targets, and Kaspersky has denied being in cahoots with Moscow.
...
More: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/2/nghia-hoang-pho-former-nsa-employee-pleads-guilty/
Here's the NSA Employee Who Kept Top Secret Documents at Home (https://thehackernews.com/2017/12/nghia-hoang-pho-nsa.html)
Swati Khandelwal - Friday, December 01, 2017
A former employee—who worked for an elite hacking group operated by the U.S. National Security Agency—pleaded guilty on Friday to illegally taking classified documents home, which were later stolen by Russian hackers.
In a press release published Friday, the US Justice Department announced that Nghia Hoang Pho, a 67-year-old of Ellicott City, Maryland, took documents that contained top-secret national information from the agency between 2010 and 2015.
Pho, who worked as a developer for the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) hacking group at the NSA, reportedly moved the stolen classified documents and tools to his personal Windows computer at home, which was running Kaspersky Lab software.
...
For those unaware, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has even banned Kaspersky Labs' antivirus software from all of its government computers over suspicion of the company's involvement with the Russian intelligence agency and spying fears.
Kaspersky CEO Says He Would Leave If Russia Asked Him To Spy
Though there's no substantial evidence yet available, an article published by US news agency WSJ in October claimed that Kaspersky software helped Russian spies steal highly classified documents and hacking tools belonging to the NSA in 2015 from a staffer's home PC.
However, Kaspersky Labs has denied any direct involvement with the Russian spies in the alleged incident.
Just last month, Kaspersky claimed that its antivirus package running on the Pho's home PC detected the copies of the NSA exploits as malicious software, and uploaded them to its cloud for further analysis by its team of researchers.
According to the company, as soon as its analysts realized that its antivirus had collected more than malicious binaries, the company immediately deleted the copy of the classified documents, and also created a special software tweak, preventing those files from being downloaded again.
Even, when asked if Russian intel agency had ever asked him to help it spy on the West at a media briefing at the Kaspersky's offices in London on Tuesday, CEO Eugene Kaspersky said "They have never asked us to spy on people. Never."
Kaspersky further added that "If the Russian government comes to me and asks me to anything wrong, or my employees, I will move the business out of Russia."
...
More: https://thehackernews.com/2017/12/nghia-hoang-pho-nsa.html
Who Is Nghia Hoang Pho? NSA Employee Stored Documents Stolen By Russian Hackers (http://www.ibtimes.com/who-nghia-hoang-pho-nsa-employee-stored-documents-stolen-russian-hackers-2622723)
By AJ Dellinger - 12/01/17
...Pho is one of three NSA workers in the last two years to be charged with mishandling of classified information. Pho’s case is particularly egregious, as the employee was lifting sensitive documents from the agency for half a decade.
The crackdown on employees and contractors mishandling information comes as the NSA continues its search for the source of a major breach of the agency that resulted in the public release of its hacking tools.
The breach, carried out by an anonymous group of hackers identified as the Shadow Brokers, has caused fits for the agency. Tools developed by the NSA have been used to carry out massive cyber attacks, including the WannaCry ransomware attack that spread to more than one million computers earlier this year. Stolen NSA exploits have led to the shut down of hospitals, communications companies, public transportation and other essential infrastructure.
...
More: http://www.ibtimes.com/who-nghia-hoang-pho-nsa-employee-stored-documents-stolen-russian-hackers-2622723
Bottom line: Seems that the story is intentionally vague, and mostly swept under the rug (you won't see it all day as Breaking News on CNN). An NSA employee, either incompetent or up to something, took home classified information and hacking tools.
His Kapersky anti-virus software identified the hacking tools as malware, and downloaded them for analysis, apparently to servers where the company is located in Russia.
At some point, hackers also got ahold of the tools, and used them for malicious attacks around the globe.
This led to hysterical cries of "Russia hacked us", for which there has been no evidence presented at this point to prove the allegation.