Former U.S. gov't employee attempted to steal nuclear weapons secrets -Justice Dept

18:15 - 08 May 2015

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has charged a former employee of the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for allegedly attempting an email attack on government employees to extract sensitive information on nuclear weapons.

According to an indictment unsealed on Friday, Charles Eccleston allegedly attempted the "spear-phishing" attack in January targeting dozens of email accounts, where he believed he was unleashing a virus to collect the information.

Eccleston, who has lived in the Philippines since 2011 after he was fired from the NRC in 2010, was caught in a sting by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after he approached a foreign embassy about providing classified U.S. information. Undercover FBI employees then posed as foreigners and promised to pay for the spear-fishing attack, according to the Justice Department.

Eccleston, 62, was detained on March 27 and deported to the United States. The first hearing on the indictment is scheduled for May 20. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Bill Trott)