TECH NEWS

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

The former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) IT specialist previously accused of trying to pass secret and top-secret information to foreign spies has pleaded guilty following a successful FBI sting.

Nathan Vilas Laatsch, then 28, and now 29, was arrested in May 2025 after an undercover FBI agent caught him for the second time transmitting intelligence packages in a public park that he believed would be collected by a foreign government’s spy.

The man, who had been employed at the DIA as a civilian employee since 2019, held top-secret clearance, and in March 2025 offered to transmit classified information to an overseas administration.

The identity of this country has never been revealed, but court documents [PDF] describe it as “a friendly foreign government.”

Laatsch was assigned to the DIA’s Insider Threat Division in “spring 2025,” a unit dedicated to identifying government workers who were likely to leak, or already were leaking,...

Copyright of this story solely belongs to theregister.com. To see the full text click HERE

https://image.theregister.com/5277385.jpg?imageId=5277385&x=0&y=0&cropw=100&croph=100&panox=0&panoy=0&panow=100&panoh=100&width=1200&height=683

Green Party wants to slam the brakes on UK datacenter construction until water and energy use are sorted

Tree huggers aim to end blanket critical infrastructure status for bit barns and ensure environmental standards are met The Green Party of England and Wales wants the government to end the blanket designation of new bit barns as “critical infrastructure” and change planning rules to stop such facilities taking precedence

https://image.theregister.com/261356.jpg?imageId=261356&x=0&y=0&cropw=100&croph=100&panox=0&panoy=0&panow=100&panoh=100&width=1200&height=683

LibreOffice 26.8 is out – local first, and with no AI

It looks a bit clunky, but it does the job – and on your own computer The latest semi-annual release of LibreOffice, the cross-platform FOSS office suite, is out – and it’s gleefully throwing some shade. The Document Foundation released LibreOffice 26.8 – and sent The Register a press pack before

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U48KFBkfM3JwgtqZ8rmxjH-2000-80.png

Best Buy's Labor Day appliance sale is live, and the retailer says 'we won’t be beat on appliance…

It's a good day to visit Best Buy. Online and in-store, Best Buy has launched its official Labor Day appliance sale, and it's also running a 24-hour tech sale on its best-selling gadgets. I'll first start with its appliance sale, because it's

https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/retro-app.webp?resize=1200,800

Friend-focused photo sharing app Retro snags $21M

Retro, the friend-focused photo-sharing app built by former Instagram product engineers Nathan Sharp and Ryan Olson, has raised north of $21 million in Series A funding, according to an SEC filing. The fundraise is a testament to the enduring need for social apps that connect people with one another more

Read more

Green Party wants to slam the brakes on UK datacenter construction until water and energy use are sorted

LibreOffice 26.8 is out – local first, and with no AI

Best Buy's Labor Day appliance sale is live, and the retailer says 'we won&rsquo;t be beat on appliance…

Friend-focused photo sharing app Retro snags $21M

Best Buy's Labor Day appliance sale is live, and the retailer says 'we won’t be beat on appliance…