Joshua Schulte, ex-CIA contractor who gave secrets to WikiLeaks, sentenced to 40 yrs for spying, child porn

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) software engineer, Joshua Schulte, who gave secrets to WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday (Feb 1) for "espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography."

Notably, the Vault 7 leak, where a series of classified documents were leaked by WikiLeaks in March 2017, exposed details about the hacking tools and techniques used by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for cyber espionage. The leak is considered one of the largest and most significant in the history of CIA disclosures.

The latest sentencing comes after 2022 conviction of Schulte on multiple charges, including four counts each of espionage and computer hacking, and one count of lying to FBI agents, media reports said.Prosecutors labeled Schulte's actions as "the largest data breach in the history of the CIA." The judge, however, did not impose a life sentence as requested by prosecutors.

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The release of Vault 7 raised concerns about the extent of government surveillance and the potential misuse of cyber tools for intelligence purposes. It also sparked debates about the balance between national security and individual privacy.

The leaked documents also detailed the CIA's methods for hacking and revealed collaborations with British intelligence to compromise smart televisions, transforming them into improvised surveillance devices.

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Earlier such leaks include Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the US Armyleaking a large amount of classified information to WikiLeaks in 2010, which included diplomatic cables, military logs from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and a classified video showing a US helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2007.

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Moreover, Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, disclosed a vast amount of classified NSA documents to journalists in 2013. Snowden's revelations exposed extensive global surveillance programmes, conducted by the NSA and its Five Eyes alliance partners, which involved mass data collection on both US citizens and individuals around the world.

(With inputs from agencies)