Ex-NSA Contractor Was a Suspect In Shadow Brokers Leak
A new court document shows that Harold Martin, a former NSA contractor whom some have previously speculated was the individual behind the leaks of some highly classified NSA hacking tools in 2016, was indeed a prime suspect in the case.
Martin was arrested in August 2016 after law enforcement agents raided his home near Baltimore, Maryland, and discovered nearly 50 terabytes of government data, including documents marked "Secret" and "Top Secret," in his possession.
His arrest came just days after an outfit calling itself the Shadow Brokers publicly released several highly-classified NSA offensive hacking tools and exploits and offered to sell more stolen tools via auction to any interested parties. Up to now, the government has not said if the documents in Martin's possession at the time of his arrest included the NSA hacking tools. Neither has law enforcement explicitly identified Martin as being involved in the Shadow Brokers leak. A federal grand jury last February indicted Martin on 20 counts of willfully retaining national defense information. His trial is scheduled to start June 2017.
