Could an intern be a threat to an organization? And to national security?

The answer is YES! That’s the reality of insider threats. They could come in any form, from anyone, at any level. All it takes is access.

In a case that has shaken the UK’s national security circles, a GCHQ intern was recently sentenced to 7 years in prison for stealing sensitive information, including the names of British spies. This breach highlights the growing risk posed by insiders, even within the most security-conscious organizations.

The Incident: How Insider Risks Can Arise from Within

In this alarming case, A computer‑science student from the University of Manchester was on a placement at GCHQ. While working within a technical development team on top-secret tools and techniques, Arshad used his work-provided mobile phone to remove data from a classified network on 24 August 2022. Then, he transferred that data to a personal home computer, storing it on an external hard drive. The stolen material included a highly sensitive intelligence tool, rendered compromised and unusable, as well as identifying information for 17 GCHQ colleagues. The breach “threw away many thousands of hours of work” and posed a “serious risk to national security”.

Arshad pleaded guilty under the Computer Misuse Act (Section 3ZA) in March 2025. During sentencing in June 2025, the judge described his actions as reckless, driven by “intellectual arrogance”, and stated that he believed that “rules do not apply to him”.

The Insider Threat Reality

This case supports the hard truth: Insider Threats can bypass even the most robust security measures. Whether driven by arrogance, grievance, financial gain, or negligence, insiders with legitimate access are among the hardest risks to detect and can cause devastating damage to any organization.

Key lessons from this case:

• Access does not always equal trust. Interns, contractors, and employees, regardless of position, can become insider risks.
• Security gaps and delayed detection could put your data at serious risk. When handling sensitive and “Top secret” data, detection and response times are crucial to minimizing and controlling the impact.
• Intentional insider threats are not rare or a single incident, and they have a high impact. As seen here, one individual’s actions had the potential to compromise national security.
  
  

How Organizations Can Respond To Insider Threats

To reduce insider risk exposure, organizations should:

• Implement user behavior analytics (UBA) to detect abnormal activity early.
• Enforce least privilege principles and closely monitor privileged access.
• Integrate screen watermarking and other deterrence tools to protect sensitive data.
• Establish continuous employee risk assessments and security awareness programs.

The GCHQ intern breach is a reminder that insider threats are real, dangerous, and often hard to detect until it’s too late. Organizations must adopt proactive, layered strategies that combine technology, process, and culture to safeguard sensitive data and confidential assets.

Source: BBC, Independent, Daily Mail