Navy engineer arrested for selling submarine secrets hidden in peanut butter san...
source link: https://www.techspot.com/news/91678-navy-engineer-arrested-selling-submarine-secrets-hidden-peanut.html
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
Navy engineer arrested for selling submarine secrets hidden in peanut butter sandwich
Exchanging sub secrets for crypto via a tasty snack
By Rob Thubron Today 10:07 AMWhat just happened? A navy nuclear engineer and his wife have been charged with trying to sell submarine technology secrets to another country in exchange for cryptocurrency. The FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) arrested Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, of Annapolis, Maryland, after the former tried to sell information on the nuclear propulsion system of Virginia-class attack submarines to what he thought was a representative of a foreign government, but was actually an undercover FBI agent.
A criminal complaint by the Department of Justice (DoJ) states that 42-year-old Toebbe worked on the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. His high-level national security clearance gave him access to information that rival nations would doubtlessly pay handsomely for.
The USS Virginia
According to the complaint, on April 1, 2020, Jonathan sent a package to an unnamed foreign government stating he was interested is selling submarine operations manuals, performance reports and other sensitive information in return for $100,000 in cryptocurrency. "I apologize for this poor translation into your language. Please forward this letter to your military intelligence agency. I believe this information will be of great value to your nation. This is not a hoax," he wrote.
The FBI office in the foreign country received the package, which had a return address of Pittsburgh. It led to an FBI agent posing as the foreign representative communicating with Toebbe via Proton Mail over the course of several months. The federal agent sent Toebbe $10,000 worth of Monero in June as a sign of good faith and trust. A week later, Toebbe and his 45-year-old wife, Diana Toebbe, agreed to travel to a West Virginia drop site to exchange the classified data.
With his wife acting as a lookout, Toebbe made the drop at the agreed location. He left half a peanut butter sandwich that contained a blue SD card wrapped in plastic. The device contained, among other things, design elements and performance characteristics of Virginia-class submarine reactors. Toebbe had also left a message that read: "I hope your experts are very happy with the sample provided and I understand the importance of a small exchange to grow our trust."
The FBI paid Toebbe $20,000 for the transaction. Several more exchanges took place over the following months, including one in which he was given $70,000 after leaving an SD card in a chewing gum packet.
The couple was arrested on October 9 and will appear in a Martinsburg, West Virginia federal court on October 12. They face charges of conspiracy to communicate restricted data and communicating restricted data as violations of the Atomic Energy Act.
Image credit: @joefoodie
Recommend
-
27
Watch Just a puppy eating peanut butter...how cute is he?!?? video Cody Alan GIF on Gfycat. Discover more GIFS online at Gfycat.
-
9
ConversationI don't need any incentive to get a vaccine. But if I did, a spoonful of peanut butter, plus a hug and butt-tap from a hot vet, would be pretty near the top of my list.
-
9
A Leaked Email From JIF Peanut Butter’s Brand Manager to An InfluencerWhen reached for comment, the manager stated that he “followed JIF policy to a T.”
-
6
打野选手Peanut确诊新冠实时讨论:20.1W Gen 发布公告:Gen.G LoL的打野选手Peanut在今天(2月10日)上午确诊新冠肺炎。Gen.G LoL全体人员进行了快速抗原测试,均得到了阴性的检测结果。
-
15
Systems Thinking and Grubhub: They Go Together like Chocolate and Peanut ButterWhat do an Airbus A380, a pacemaker, and Grubhub all have in common? All three utilize teams focused on systems thinking, system...
-
2
BSV and IPv6: Chocolate, peanut butter and massive scaling on the cheap Business 2 hours ago The newest version o...
-
5
Former National Guardsman Arrested for Allegedly Selling Ghost Guns Also Threatened to Shoot Up Jewish Schools, ‘Hunt’ Black People"Discord messages revealed a large quantity of antisemitic, white nationalist, racis...
-
1
Florida man arrested for selling $1 billion in fake Cisco hardware online The fraudster also sold to schools, hospitals, and government agencies By
-
4
An engineer explains why most ocean science is conducted with crewless submarines by Nina Mahmoudian,...
-
4
behind bars — Fugitive “sovereign citizen” arrested for selling silver as bogus COVID cure Gordon H. Pedersen of Utah was on the run from fraud charges for three years.
About Joyk
Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK