A 25-year-old intern, Hassan Arshad, has been sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison for transferring highly sensitive data from the UK’s intelligence agency GCHQ to his home.
Arshad admitted to violating the Computer Misuse Act.
He was accused of extracting top-secret information from GCHQ’s secure systems on August 24, 2022, using his mobile phone and transferring it to his personal computer. The stolen data not only related to his own project but also included code names of other teams and the real identities of intelligence personnel.
During the hearing at London’s Old Bailey Court, Justice Maura McGowan remarked that Arshad had endangered national security.
According to British media, the court stated that Hassan Arshad had jeopardized the lives of intelligence officers, wasted thousands of hours of effort, and misused national resources. The court described the act as “extremely serious and dangerous.”
Prosecutors said Arshad transferred the data without authorization, posing a significant threat to national security.
The judge emphasized that had this information fallen into the wrong hands, it could have led to devastating consequences.
During his internship, Arshad was granted access to work on intelligence tools and techniques and had signed the Official Secrets Act under workplace protocols.
Despite this, he violated security regulations and took classified information home.
