The US Justice Department has charged a former government employee for allegedly trying to steal nuclear secrets through email attacks and sell them to China.
According to an indictment , Charles Eccleston allegedly attempted the “spear-phishing” attack in January targeting dozens of email accounts, which he believed would unleash a virus to collect sensitive information on nuclear weapons.
Eccleston, a former employee at the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has lived in the Philippines since 2011 after being fired in 2010.
He was caught in a sting by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after he approached a foreign embassy about providing classified US information.
Undercover FBI employees then posed as foreigners and promised to pay for the spear-fishing attack, according to the Justice Department.
The indictment did not identify the country Eccleston allegedly approached, but The Washington Post has reported that it was China.
Full article: Former US government employee tried to steal nuclear weapons secrets (Sydney Morning Herald)
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