UK warned secret intelligence could be compromised after data theft in Switzerland

Hugely sensitive counter-terrorism intelligence could be compromised after a ‘disgruntled’ Swiss IT worker walked out of his job at NDB, Switzerland’s spy agency, with millions of classified data files.

While the technician was arrested by Swiss authorities last summer and the stolen data seized, one source said that Swiss investigators could not be positive the suspect did not sell or pass on any of the information before his arrest. This has lead to Swiss authorities alerting America’s CIA and Britain’s MI6 that shared information could be compromised. A European security source said it is believed the IT worker became disgruntled when he felt his advice on operating the data systems was not being taken seriously.

He worked for the NDB – or Federal Intelligence Service, which is part of Switzerland’s Defense Ministry - for about eight years. Describe as a ‘very talented’ technician, he also had ‘administrator rights’, which gave him unrestricted access to most or all of the NDB’s networks, including those holding vast caches of secret data.