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US government snitch-finder pleads guilty to leaking state secrets to foreign spies

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US government snitch-finder pleads guilty to leaking state secrets to foreign spies

A former Defense Intelligence Agency IT specialist, Nathan Vilas Laatsch, pleaded guilty to attempting to transmit classified information to a foreign government after an FBI undercover sting operation. Laatsch, who worked in the DIA's Insider Threat Division, offered to share top-secret intelligence in March 2025 via email and subsequently collected and attempted to deliver classified documents across two planned dead-drops in an Arlington, Virginia park. The FBI arrested him during the second transfer on May 29, 2025, and his plea agreement recommends a sentence between 11 and 18 years.

Why it matters: Government security practitioners and counterintelligence officials need to understand how an Insider Threat Division employee exploited access to classified systems and security monitoring tools to conduct espionage, highlighting gaps in monitoring and vetting even for staff with sensitive roles.

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