A former intern at GCHQ has pleaded guilty to risking national security after he took secret data home.
Hasaan Arshad, 25, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, who appeared in the dock wearing a dark grey suit, a white shirt and a dark brown tie, admitted an offence under the Computer Misuse Act on what would have been the first day of his trial at the Old Bailey.
It was alleged that on 24 August 2022 Arshad took his work phone into a top-secret area of GCQH and connected the mobile device to a top-secret work station.
He then transferred sensitive data from a secure top-secret computer to the phone, before taking it home and transferring data from the phone to a hard drive connected to his personal home computer.
“Top secret” is the classification given to the government’s most sensitive information, where compromise might cause widespread loss of life or threaten the security or economic wellbeing of the country or friendly countries.
Arshad was arrested in September 2022, and his home was searched. On Monday he 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”.
The charge said: “He intended by doing the act to cause serious damage of a material kind or was reckless as to whether such damage was caused.”
Defending Arshad, Nina Grahame KC told the court that he had admitted the offence on the “basis of recklessness”. The court was told he had previously admitted two charges of making an indecent photograph of a child in relation to a number of images found between 7 September and 23 September 2022.
Mrs Justice McGowan adjourned sentencing, ordering a pre-sentence report, and granting Arshad continued bail with various conditions, including not accessing the dark web.
“I want you to understand because of your age I am making the request for the pre-sentence report in this case but that does not mean there will not be a custodial sentence,” the judge said, addressing Arshad, who nodded his understanding before leaving the dock.
Previously, the judge had ruled that some parts of Arshad’s case would be heard behind closed doors, with the press and public excluded.
The defendant is due to be sentenced on 13 June.
