Ex-NSA Employee Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified Data to Russia

Ex-NSA Employee Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified Data to Russia

October 24, 2023 at 12:30PM

A former NSA employee, Jareh Sebastian Dalke, has pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to transmit classified defense information to Russia. Dalke used an encrypted email account to send excerpts of classified documents to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent, but was actually an FBI employee. He requested $85,000 in exchange for the information and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Meeting Notes – October 24, 2023

Subject: Cyber Espionage / Data Safety

Summary:
– Jareh Sebastian Dalke, a former employee of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), has pleaded guilty to attempting to transmit classified defense information to Russia.
– Dalke served as an Information Systems Security Designer at the NSA from June 6, 2022, to July 1, 2022, with Top Secret clearance.
– Between August and September 2022, Dalke used an encrypted email account to send excerpts of three classified documents to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent. However, the agent was actually an online covert employee of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
– Dalke allegedly requested $85,000 in exchange for the information and promised to share more documents in the future.
– The document transmission occurred at Union Station in downtown Denver, Colorado, using a laptop. It included five files, four of which contained Top Secret National Defense Information (NDI). The files contained information about plans to update a cryptographic program, threat assessments related to U.S. defense capabilities, and Russia’s offensive capabilities.
– After the file transfer, Dalke was arrested on September 28, 2022.
– Dalke is awaiting sentencing on April 26, 2024, and could face a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Please note that this meeting summary does not include any opinion or analysis, but rather presents the facts from the article.

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