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A former staff member at GCHQ has pleaded guilty to risking national security by taking top secret data home.
Hasaan Arshad, 25, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, admitted to an offence under the Computer Misuse Act on what would have been the first day of his trial at London’s Old Bailey.
On Monday, the ex-GCHQ intern pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 3ZA of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 relating to “unauthorised acts causing, or creating risk of, serious damage”.
On August 24, 2022, he took his work mobile phone into a top secret area of GCHQ in Cheltenham and connected the device to a top secret work station, the court was told.
The ex-GCHQ intern pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 3ZA of the Computer Misuse Act 1990
PA
Arshad was then said to have transferred sensitive data from a secure, top secret computer to the phone before taking it home.
Once home, he went on to transfer the data from the phone to a hard drive connected to his personal home computer.
The defendant was then arrested – and his home was searched on September 22, 2022.
The charge said: “Between August 23, 2022 and September 23, 2022 (he) did an unauthorised act in relation to a computer and at the time of doing the act knew that it was unauthorised; and the act caused, or created a significant risk of a material kind, this being damage to the national security of a country; and he intended by doing the act to cause serious damage of a material kind or was reckless as to whether such damage was caused.”
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Mrs Justice McGowan has adjourned sentencing for all the charges until June 13
PA
The court also heard Arshad had previously admitted two charges of making an indecent photograph of a child in relation to a number of images found between September 7 and 23 2022.
Mrs Justice McGowan has adjourned sentencing for all the charges until June 13.
More to follow…