NSA employee federally indicted on charges he shared U.S. defense secrets – Baltimore Sun

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland introduced Thursday that they’ve indicted a National Security Agency employee for allegedly sharing categorised nationwide defense secrets with an individual working at a personal firm.

Mark Unkenholz of Hanover is charged with 13 counts of willfully transmitting categorised supplies and 13 counts of willfully storing categorised supplies in a spot they aren’t meant to be. Prosecutors say Unkenholz, 60, used his private e mail deal with on 13 separate events to ship data categorised as SECRET and TOP SECRET to a lady working for an unnamed firm.

All the emails had been despatched between Feb. 14, 2018, and June 1, 2020, in response to courtroom filings. Prosecutors recognized the recipient by her initials, R.F., however didn’t reveal the place she labored. It’s not clear whether or not R.F. is going through prison charges. The emails had been uncovered after an FBI investigation, federal prosecutors mentioned.

Online courtroom data don’t record a defense legal professional for Unkenholz. Attempts to succeed in Unkenholz on Thursday had been unsuccessful.

Unkenholz was an NSA engineer centered on encryption expertise and at one level labored on the company’s Signals Intelligence program. Signals Intelligence, or SIGINT, is authorities intelligence derived from hacking into overseas brokers’ communication methods, radar and different digital units.

At one level throughout their correspondence, R.F. held a top-secret safety clearance with the NSA, in response to courtroom filings. Prosecutors say R.F.’s clearance expired in July 2019 when she modified jobs, and at no level was she alleged to obtain categorised materials by way of her firm e mail server.

Each of Unkenholz’s 26 counts carries a most 10-year jail sentence. If convicted, it’s unlikely he would face the utmost penalty.