Pentagon leak suspect Jack Teixeira arrested at gunpoint

The US Department of Justice says a member of the US Air Force National Guard has been arrested in connection with a high profile leak of classified Pentagon documents.

21-year-old Jack Douglas Teixeira of Massachusetts was detained after highly classified defence and intelligence documents related to Russia’s war in Ukraine were found to have been shared on a Discord channel used by a group calling itself “Thug Shaker Central.”

Some thoughts:

• Don’t be so distracted by remote hackers working for an enemy state that you overlook the threat that might be posed by insiders.
• A leaker’s motives might not be to cause you harm or make money. They might just be showing off to their buddies.
• If you want to remain truly anonymous, it’s not a good idea to brag about your job online.

Jack Teixeira is expected to appear in court in Boston tomorrow.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.