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    GCHQ intern who took secret data home jailed
    United Kingdom

    GCHQ intern who took secret data home jailed

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    13 Comments

    1. CSGB13 on

      ‘What you in for?’
      ‘Assault’
      ‘What you in for?’
      ‘Stealing from MI5’

    2. Hakizimanaa on

      Ahh the neurodivergent card being thrown in, classic. This guy had an opportunity that people would kill for and this is what he does, what an idiot. And finding child porn images on his phone to boot, what a sick bloke.

    3. carlefc on

      Seven and a half years? Wow!

      The headline is slightly misleading as he was also done for being filthy nonce.

    4. Evening-Mess-3593 on

      I remember doing estimates for BNFL a good few years ago now. Everyone who was working on the estimate had to be vetted by BNFL. Basically anyone with a non-English sounding name was refused clearance regardless of their background etc. Times have changed somewhat.

    6. jondixo on

      Is Rochdale famous for anything good these days? It seemed to start the Co-Op and then go awry.

    7. theuniversechild on

      How did this geezer only get 7.5years?!?

      Not only did he steal classified information but he was also caught with Cat A images of children and seemingly MADE indecent photo of a child too (although doesn’t state what category this was?)

      So he’s a mega nonce and a national security risk? Seems a super light sentence?

    8. JimboTCB on

      So, uh, how did he manage to take this supposedly top secret information home? If it’s so secret that it should only be viewed under strict controls in a secure environment, how the fuck did he apparently just download it to his phone? Why is an intern even allowed a personal phone within GCHQ premises in the first place? Shit, there’s tighter information security controls that that at an Amazon warehouse.

    9. WynterRayne on

      Didn’t have a gold toilet to put it next to? You need the gold toilet, that’s the only way they let you do it.

    12. ash_ninetyone on

      > He had been diagnosed as being “on the autism spectrum” and was “neuro-divergent”, she told the court.

      No. That is not a defence in this situation. It’s not mitigating circunstances. I would hate any implication that was the cause of his actions.

      This isn’t him being on the spectrum at fault. This is him being arrogant thinking he wouldn’t get caught.

      He knew the nature of his work when he went through induction and signed the official secrets act and the consequences of breaching them. He’s a computer science student. His course would also have included a module on computer laws and the workplace (ours called it Professional Practice), and what happens with data, especially sensitive data that is controlled in very unsecure ways.

      The majority of people with autism also don’t start making indecent images of kids.

    13. Superb_Slide_5312 on

      I manage a team of people in a similar industry to GCHQ. The team are also mainly neurodivergent and would never dream of taking data , it’s a crap excuse. It’s like he’s conflating being neurodivergent with not knowing the difference between right and wrong.