A former worker on the National Security Agency (NSA) has been charged with trying to transmit categorised protection data to a consultant of a overseas authorities. He was arrested on Wednesday and made his preliminary look at a federal court docket on Thursday.

According to the Department of Justice, Jareh Dalke used an encrypted electronic mail account to ship excerpts of three categorised National Defense Information paperwork to a overseas spy. In actuality, that overseas spy was an undercover FBI agent, per the charging paperwork. Dalke allegedly exchanged that data for cryptocurrency, requesting $85,000 in cryptocurrency.

The 30-year-old briefly served as an Information Systems Security Designer on the NSA from June 6 to July 1 of this yr. He had reapplied in August however was rejected. It’s not clear why he was let go initially, however Dalke claimed to nonetheless be working on the NSA when he first contacted the faux spy on July 29, in keeping with the charging paperwork. Dalke allegedly claimed that he was in possession of extremely delicate data regarding overseas focusing on of U.S. programs and knowledge on U.S. cyber operations. He initially offered excerpts of three categorised paperwork to show that he actually had them, after which requested the fee in trade for extra data, prosecutors stated. The FBI agent arrange a safe connection to obtain the data at a public location in Denver, the place Dalke was taken into custody on Wednesday.

Dalke is charged with three violations of the Espionage Act for allegedly transmitting data to a consultant of a overseas nation with the intent of harming the U.S. or serving the curiosity of a overseas authorities. If convicted, he may very well be sentenced to demise or life in jail.