Former GCHQ intern admits taking top secret data home

A former GCHQ intern has admitted risking national security by taking top secret data home with him on his mobile phone.

Hasaan Arshad, 25, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Computer Misuse Act on what would have been the first day of his trial at the Old Bailey in London.

The charge related to committing an unauthorised act which risked damaging national security.

Arshad, from Rochdale in Greater Manchester, is said to have transferred sensitive data from a secure computer to his phone, which he had taken into a top secret area of GCHQ on 24 August 2022.

Top secret is the classification for the government’s most sensitive information.

The compromise of this data might cause widespread loss of life or threaten the security or economic wellbeing of the country or friendly nations, according to Ministry of Justice security guidance.

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

The court heard that Arshad took his work mobile into a top secret GCHQ area and connected it to work station.

He then transferred sensitive data from a secure, top secret computer to the phone before taking it home, it was claimed.

Arshad then transferred the data from the phone to a hard drive connected to his personal home computer.

He was arrested and his home was searched on 22 September 2022.

Arshad’s lawyer Nina Grahame KC told the court that he had admitted the offence on the “basis of recklessness”.

The court was told Arshad had previously admitted two charges of making an indecent photograph of a child in relation to a number of images found between 7 and 23 September 2022.

Mrs Justice McGowan adjourned sentencing for all the charges to June 13.

The senior judge ordered a pre-sentence report and granted Arshad continued bail with various conditions, including not to access the dark web.

She told him: “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.”

Arshad wore a dark grey suit, white shirt and dark brown tie and nodded that he understood before leaving the dock.