Prison for intern who stole GCHQ secrets

GCHQ intern Hasaan Arshad was jailed for seven and a half years after he took top secret data home.

- By Paul Jeeves

A court heard he endangered national security, risked exposing colleagues and “threw away” thousands of hours of work.

The Manchester University student, 25, used his mobile phone to remove material from a computer system and transfer it to his own computer in 2022.

Arshad, of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, admitted an offence under the Computer Misuse Act and two charges of making an indecent photo of a child over images found after his arrest.