CIA Traitor Convicted For Massive Vault 7 Hacking Tool Dump

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Computer engineer Joshua Schulte was perturbed with his spooky employer, the CIA Center for Cyber Intelligence. He was disgruntled enough to hand a huge toolbox full of cutting edge code “that could grab data undetected from computers,” over to WikiLeaks. They called it “Vault 7.” On Wednesday, July 13, he was “convicted on all counts” by a federal court.

CIA Hacking tools on the loose

The package Joshua Schulte leaked to the public has been described by the CIA as “the largest leak of classified data in the agency’s history.” In 2016 he passed along “reams” of highly classified data. The government eventually charged him with “illegally gathering and transmitting national defense information and obstructing a criminal investigation and grand jury proceeding.” There were some minor charges in there, too.

He was convicted on all of them. Rightfully so. He knew the price he would pay for doing it when he got caught. The question is, was it worth the long stretch in prison he’s about to get. He won’t get off as lightly as Reality Winner. She got 5 years in what they called “the longest sentence ever imposed” for leaking to the media. That was for one paper she stuffed down her pants.

Schulte was a typical computer engineer with the Cyber Intelligence Center of the the CIA. His job was to create tools allowing just about anyone to “grab data undetected” from any computer they wanted.

He couldn’t find a lawyer to represent him in court. So, he he handled it himself. He didn’t have much chance but managed to bring a prior trial to a deadlock in 2020.

The CIA was rather upset that Schulte happened to have a collection of “some of the country’s most valuable intelligence-gathering cyber tools.” Purportedly used to “battle terrorist organizations and other malign influences around the globe,” Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York didn’t mention all the other, less legally approved uses.

Schulte probably knew who was using his code and who their targets were. He didn’t think it was fair. “When Schulte began to harbor resentment toward the CIA, he covertly collected those tools and provided them to WikiLeaks, making some of our most critical intelligence tools known to the public – and therefore, our adversaries.

CIA

Enraged over competition

According to the prosecutors, “Schulte’s issues at the CIA began in the summer of 2015 when he began to feud with management and a co-worker, ultimately filing a restraining order against the co-worker in state court.” Both of them got a transfer.

That was just the beginning. Investigators argued that Schulte “became enraged” when agency officials wanted to “hire a contractor to build a cyber tool similar to one he was building.” That, they say, is what pushed him into treason.

About a year later, “Schulte stole cyber tools and source code and transferred them to WikiLeaks.” He went back and did his best to cover up what he did but the CIA has better hackers than him. He quit in November 2016.

WikiLeaks published the first installment of Vault 7 in March 2017. The court learned that everything in Vault 7 was associated with “two programs that Schulte had access to.” There weren’t many others working with them either. That made it easy to narrow down the suspects.

When WikiLeaks published the super hacking software live, they issued a press release attributing the data to an anonymous source who “wanted to raise policy questions, specifically about whether the CIA had overstepped its hacking capabilities and exceeded its authority.” He kept lying to investigators so they managed to get him arrested on some child pornography charges.

Once they were into his files, “he was indicted on the charges related to the data breach months later.” After the judge banged his gavel Wednesday, the prosecutors took a victory lap. “Today, Schulte has been convicted for one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.

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