PUBLIC RECORD · PRIMARY SOURCES ONLY
AN INSIDER-THREAT NEWSROOM · CASE FILES FROM THE RECORD
INSIDE THE
THREAT
The threat already has a badge. Real insider cases, told from the seat the insider sat in: what they could reach, what they did with it, and which control would have stopped it. Every fact is linked to a court record, an inspector general report or an FBI file.
10Case-file stories18Fact sheets4Actor files0Paywalled sources
The Collection
VOLUME ONE · 10 CASE FILES
ITT-001EXHIBIT · EVIDENCEWitting
THE MOLE INSIDE THE MOLE HUNT
Nobody Read the Logs
For more than twenty years the FBI's most damaging spy worked from inside the Bureau. The system that could have caught him was switched on. Nobody looked.
Case file ITT-001PLEADED GUILTY · LIFE9 min read
ITT-002ILLUSTRATIVETargeted · Refused
THE RECRUITMENT THAT FAILED
The Employee Who Said No
PLEADED GUILTY · TIME SERVED ITT-003ILLUSTRATIVEWittingA FOREIGN GOVERNMENT · A PLATFORM INSIDER · THE DISSIDENTS' DATA
The Watch from London
CONVICTED · VENUE REMAND (SCOTUS 2026) ITT-004ILLUSTRATIVEWittingNINE YEARS IN PLAIN SIGHT
Paid in Cash
PLEADED GUILTY · LIFE ITT-005ILLUSTRATIVEWittingTHE MAN WHO MAINTAINED THE MACHINES
Trusted to Fix It
PLEADED GUILTY · 15 YEARS ITT-006ILLUSTRATIVEUnwitting$120 MILLION · ONE LOOK-ALIKE SUPPLIER
The Invoice Looked Right
PLEADED GUILTY · 60 MONTHS ITT-007ILLUSTRATIVEWittingONE REPORT · ONE ENVELOPE · 63 MONTHS
The Drive They Never Found
PLEADED GUILTY · 63 MONTHS ITT-008ILLUSTRATIVEWittingBREACH · RANSOM · FAKE LEAK · $4 BILLION
The Whistleblower Was the Hacker
PLEADED GUILTY · 6 YEARS ITT-009ILLUSTRATIVEIgnorantNO BUYER · NO HANDLER · STILL A CRIME
Off-Base
PLEADED GUILTY · PROBATION ITT-010ILLUSTRATIVEIgnorant26 MILLION VETERANS · ONE EXTERNAL DRIVE · NO ENCRYPTION
The Fascination Project
NO PROSECUTION · ADMINISTRATIVECurrent record
CHECKED 2026-10-20 · NOT VOLUME ONENotes from public FBI and Justice Department releases. The historical case files below are unchanged. A charge is not a conviction. These notes are not actor findings. Firms the record places in Northern Virginia, Washington, or Maryland are on the company record.
- SENTENCED · 32 MONTHSDaniel RhyneFormer core infrastructure engineer. Pleaded guilty. On September 28, 2026, Judge Michael A. Shipp sentenced him in Trenton to 32 months for extortion tied to a threat to damage a protected computer, and for intentional damage to a protected computer. The release names the employer only as Victim-1. FBI Newark and Kansas City investigated. Docket number not in the release.DOJ · U.S. ATTORNEY, DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY · OCTOBER 5, 2026
- CHARGED · COMPLAINTGerald Eddie Brown, Jr.Former U.S. Air Force officer and pilot, 65. Arrested February 25, 2026, and charged by criminal complaint with providing, and conspiring to provide, unauthorized defense services to Chinese military pilots. The release states no conviction. Initial appearance was expected in the Southern District of Indiana.DOJ · U.S. ATTORNEY, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA · FEBRUARY 25, 2026
- BUREAU RECORD · NOT A CASEFBI user-activity monitoringOn September 23, 2026, the FBI said it had deployed user-activity monitoring and behavioral analytics across multiple Bureau networks, and that the program met the minimum monitoring rule in Committee on National Security Systems Directive 504. This release is about the Bureau’s own systems. It names no defendant.FBI NATIONAL PRESS OFFICE · SEPTEMBER 23, 2026
Four kinds of file
EDITORIAL CLASSIFICATION6 STORIES · 12 FACT SHEETS
Witting
Knew the rules. Broke them on purpose.
1 STORY · 3 FACT SHEETSUnwitting
Used by someone else. Did the job, and the job was the attack.
2 STORIES · 2 FACT SHEETSIgnorant
No malice, no buyer. Did not grasp the risk, or ignored it.
1 STORY · 1 FACT SHEETTargeted · Refused
Approached to betray. Said no, and reported it.
Our method
We do not run stings, we do not edit material to deceive, we do not entrap anyone, and we do not publish what we cannot source.
Every fact on this site links to a public primary record, every correction is logged in the open. Mission, method & terms →
From the docket
STATUS AS OF OCT 20, 2026| Actor | Case | Story | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Witting | Robert Hanssen (FBI) | ITT-001 · Nobody Read the Logs | Sentenced to life without parole (May 10, 2002). Deceased (June 5, 2023), per FBI. |
| Witting | Aldrich Ames (CIA) | ITT-004 · Paid in Cash | Pleaded guilty April 28, 1994. Sentenced to incarceration for life without the possibility of parole, per FBI. Current custody status not ch… |
| Witting | Chelsea Manning (U.S. Army) | Fact sheet only | Court-martial sentence: 35 years (Aug 21, 2013). Prison sentence commuted to expire May 17, 2017 (grant of Jan 17, 2017). |
| Witting | Edward Snowden (NSA contractor / former CIA) | Fact sheet only | Civil: final judgment and permanent injunction (Sept 29, 2020). Criminal: DOJ referenced "criminal charges brought against Snowden for his a… |
| Witting | Jack Teixeira (Massachusetts Air National Guard) | ITT-005 · Trusted to Fix It | Sentenced to 15 years in prison plus 3 years' supervised release (Nov 12, 2024). No appeal found in the docket review. |
| Witting | Reality Winner (NSA contractor) | ITT-007 · The Drive They Never Found | Sentenced to 63 months plus 3 years' supervised release (Aug 23, 2018). Judgment, S.D. Ga. No. 1:17-cr-00034. |
| Witting | Xiaorong (Shannon) You (Coca-Cola / Eastman) | Fact sheet only | Convictions affirmed (6th Cir., July 11, 2023). Resentenced Sept 16, 2024; press reports the same 168-month term and $200,000 fine. The amen… |
| Witting | Ahmad Abouammo (Twitter / Saudi Arabia) | ITT-003 · The Watch from London | Convicted 2022. Resentenced June 26, 2025 to time served plus 2 years' supervised release (amended judgment July 2, 2025). On June 11, 2026,… |
| Witting | Anthony Levandowski (Google/Waymo → Uber) | Fact sheet only | Pleaded guilty; sentenced to 18 months (Aug 4, 2020). Granted a pardon on Jan 19, 2021 (DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney list). |
| Witting | Paige Thompson (Capital One / AWS) | Fact sheet only | Convicted June 17, 2022. Original sentence vacated (9th Cir., Mar 17, 2025). Resentenced Oct 29, 2025: time served, supervision, 3 years' ho… |
| Witting | Nickolas Sharp ("Company-1", per DOJ) | ITT-008 · The Whistleblower Was the Hacker | Pleaded guilty (Feb 2, 2023). Sentenced to six years in prison, 3 years' supervised release and $1,590,487 restitution (May 10, 2023). |
| Witting | Tesla, Inc. v. Martin Tripp (civil) | Fact sheet only | CIVIL, closed. Stipulated judgment Nov 30, 2020 (ECF 235): Tesla recovers $400,000 in damages under a settlement agreement plus $25,000 in p… |
| Targeted · Refused | Egor Kriuchkov: the insider who said no (Nevada company) | ITT-002 · The Employee Who Said No | Pleaded guilty (Mar 18, 2021). Judgment May 24, 2021: time served (defense counsel calculated 278 days) plus 3 years' supervised release. D.… |
| Unwitting | The July 2020 Twitter hack | Fact sheet only | Charged July 31, 2020 (two adults by federal complaint, plus a juvenile referred to Florida state prosecutors). Later outcomes not checked. |
| Unwitting | Evaldas Rimasauskas: $120M business email compromise | ITT-006 · The Invoice Looked Right | Pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Sentenced to 60 months (Dec 19, 2019). |
| Unwitting | Christina Chapman and the North Korean IT-worker laptop farm | Fact sheet only | Pleaded guilty (Feb 11, 2025). Sentenced to 102 months (DOJ release dated July 24, 2025). |
| Ignorant | Bryan Nishimura (Navy Reserve) | ITT-009 · Off-Base | Pleaded guilty and sentenced July 29, 2015: two years' probation, a $7,500 fine, forfeiture of media, and surrender of his clearance. |
| Ignorant | VA data loss, 2006 | ITT-010 · The Fascination Project | Administrative review: VA OIG Report No. 06-02238-163 (July 11, 2006). An Assistant U.S. Attorney declined to prosecute the employee, and VA… |
The standard
NO STINGS · NO DECEPTIVE EDITS · NO ENTRAPMENTWe document; we don't stage. No hidden-camera stings, no deceptive editing, no invented dialogue. The record is the story, corrections are public, and the people who refused to be recruited go on the record too. Read the mission and method →