Monica Elfriede Witt, a former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence agent, has been charged for organizing spear-phishing campaigns with the intention of compromising the devices of various U.S. intelligence agents. The veteran was indicted alongside four Iranians who are said to have been involved in the scheme.
Data Breach Today wrote, “The former agent…defected to Iran in 2013, the DOJ says. She also stands accused of revealing the identity of a highly classified U.S intelligence program and an intelligence officer. Witt has been charged in federal court in Washington with three counts of espionage.”
The case against Witt required years of data collection and investigation. It is reported that the former agent took to Facebook to locate current US Agents and disperse numerous friend requests from falsely created accounts in hopes of hacking users’ locations and information.
“It’s unclear if any of the attempts were successful, but at least one of the messages sent by the group would have immediately raised suspicion. It asked the recipient to disable anti-virus software before opening what was purportedly a photo album.”
Witt’s charges were made public by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday.
