A former CIA software engineer was convicted Wednesday of federal charges accusing him of the biggest theft of classified information in CIA history
The so-called Vault 7 leak revealed how the CIA hacked Apple and Android smartphones in overseas spying operations, and efforts to turn internet-connected televisions into listening devices. Prior to his arrest, Schulte had helped create the hacking tools as a coder at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
In his closing, Schulte claimed he was singled out even though “hundreds of people had access to . … Hundreds of people could have stolen it.”Prosecutors alleged the 33-year-old Schulte was motivated to orchestrate the leak because he believed the CIA had disrespected him by ignoring his complaints about the work environment. So he tried “to burn to the ground” the very work he had helped the agency to create, they said.
Williams said Schulte, motivated by resentment toward the CIA, leaked to the public and to U.S. adversaries some of the nation's “most valuable intelligence-gathering cyber tools used to battle terrorist organizations and other malign influences around the globe.” Once the jury left the courtroom for deliberations, the judge complimented Schulte on his closing argument.
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