Jun 18, 2025Ravie LakshmananEspionage / Nationwide Safety
A former U.S. Central Intelligence Company (CIA) analyst has been sentenced to little greater than three years in jail for unlawfully retaining and transmitting high secret Nationwide Protection Info (NDI) to individuals who weren’t entitled to obtain them and for making an attempt to cowl up the malicious exercise.
Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, has been sentenced at this time to 37 months on costs of stealing and divulging categorised data. He was an worker of the CIA since 2016 and had Prime Secret safety clearance to entry Delicate Compartmented Info (SCI) till he was terminated from his job after he was arrested final November in Cambodia.
Earlier this January, Rahman pleaded responsible to 2 counts of willful retention and transmission of categorised data associated to the nationwide protection.
As beforehand reported by The Hacker Information, Rahman retained a number of Secret and Prime Secret paperwork with out authorization on October 17, 2024, took them to his place of residence in a backpack, and wilfully despatched them to a number of people who didn’t have the mandatory clearance to obtain them.
“The defendant photographed the paperwork and transferred these pictures to a pc program that allowed him to edit the photographs to aim to hide their supply and delete his exercise,” in keeping with courtroom paperwork. “The defendant additionally took steps to hide his id whereas unlawfully sharing categorised data with others.”
A few of these paperwork had been associated to Israel’s plans to assault Iran round that point. They ultimately started circulating on-line after they had been posted on Telegram by an account known as Center East Spectator.
To cowl up these acts, Rahman engaged in what the U.S. Division of Justice (DoJ) described as a “deletion marketing campaign of labor product” on his pc, wiping roughly 1.5 GB of knowledge from his electronic mail and private folder on his system. He additionally deleted and edited sure journal entries to hide his private opinions on U.S. coverage.
“Asif Rahman violated his place of belief by illegally accessing, eradicating, and transmitting Prime Secret paperwork very important to the nationwide safety of america and its allies,” mentioned Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Legal professional for the Jap District of Virginia.
“The urgency with which Mr. Rahman was recognized, arrested, charged, and prosecuted is a testomony to the dedication and professionalism of the investigators and prosecutors who introduced him to justice. This case ought to function a stern warning to those that select to position their very own targets over their allegiance to our nation.”
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