GCHQ intern risked national security taking home top secret data on his mobile

A GCHQ intern put the UK’s national security at risk when he downloaded top secret data onto his phone and took it home.

Hasaan Arshad, a 25-year-old from Rochdale, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Computer Misuse Act at the Old Bailey today.

While doing a year-long placement at the intelligence agency, Arshad connected his work mobile to a supposedly secure, top secret computer on August 24, 2022.

He then downloaded data onto the phone and took it home, where he transferred it to a hard drive connected to his personal home computer.

This ‘unauthorised act’ had the potential to cause ‘serious damage’ to national security.

Sensitive information, where compromise might cause widespread loss of life or threaten the security or economic wellbeing of the country or friendly nations, is given the classification ‘top secret’, according to Ministry of Justice security guidance.

A month later, on September 22, Arshad was arrested and his home was charged.

His sheet said: ‘Between August 23, 2022 and September 23, 2022 [he] did an unauthorised act in relation to a computer and at the time of doing the act knew that it was unauthorised; and the act caused, or created a significant risk of a material kind, this being damage to the national security of a country; and he intended by doing the act to cause serious damage of a material kind or was reckless as to whether such damage was caused.’

Arshad admitted the charge on the ‘basis of recklessness’, his lawyer Nina Grahame KC said.

The 25-year-old had previously admitted two charges of making an indecent photograph of a child in relation to a number of images found between September 7 and 23, 2022, the court heard.

He has been granted conditional bail ahead of his sentencing for all charges on June 13. The conditions include not accessing the dark web.

Mrs Justice McGowan said: ‘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.’

Previously, the senior judge had ruled that some parts of Arshad’s case would be heard behind closed doors, in the absence of the press and public.

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