In the past 10 years, cell phones have increasingly been the tool of choice for government employees and spies, seeking to steal or leak classified government information to share with foreign governments, the press, or the general public. Because bad actors can leak information via encrypted messaging apps, phone records are no longer a source for investigators, so leakers get away with it. Nonetheless, a few of those leaks have been prosecuted publicly. The table below details some of the cases that have made headlines. Many of those cases have resulted in substantial jail terms; some are so recent the sentences have not yet been delivered.
| Case | Charged / Sentenced | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trenchant Targeted By 0-day iPhone hack | October 2025 | State-Sponsored Mobile Device Compromise | State-sponsored attackers compromised L3 Harris/Trenchant employees' iPhones using WebKit 0-day exploit, triggering Apple threat notifications to four employees. The mobile compromises likely enabled theft of zero-day tools. |
| Yuanjun Tang | Pleaded Guilty September 16, 2025 (Sentencing January 29, 2026) | Illegal Agent of Foreign Government / Espionage | Former Chinese dissident granted US asylum acted as agent for PRC Ministry of State Security (MSS) from 2018-2023. Tang used multiple electronic devices to photograph, record, and track Chinese democracy activists and dissidents in the US. MSS installed encrypted application on his cellphone to facilitate instantaneous transmission of photos and information. Tang infiltrated encrypted group chats used by US-based PRC dissidents and traveled to Macau and mainland China for meetings with MSS intelligence officers. |
| Yuance Chen & Liren Lai | Charged July 2025 | Naval Base Espionage & Unauthorized Recording | Chen and Lai allegedly used ordinary smartphones to photograph restricted areas and secretly record meetings with military Navy recruits at Naval Base Kitsap, and the USS Abraham Lincoln. |
| Korbein Schultz | April 24, 2025 | National Defense Info Sale to Foreign National | US Army Intelligence analyst Schultz was instructed by Chinese co-conspirator to use personal mobile phones and encrypted Chinese apps to photograph and transmit national defense information from inside SCIFs to a foreign national in Hong Kong. Length of Theft Operation: Almost 2 Years |
| Jian Zhao, Li Tian, Ruoyu Duan | March 5, 2025 | National Defense Information Theft & Sale | SGT Zhao and 1LT Tian were indicted for using phones to photograph national defense information inside SCIFs and transmitting it via encrypted Chinese apps to middlemen for sale to Chinese nationals. Length of Theft Operation: 9 Months |
| Michael Charles Schena | March 3, 2025 | State Department Document Theft & Sale to China | State Dept. employee Schena was indicted for photographing Top Secret documents on his workstation monitor with an iPhone and sending them from DoS headquarters via messaging apps. Length of Theft Operation: Almost 3 Years |
| Asif Rahman | Jan. 15, 2025 | Top Secret National Defense Info Leak | CIA analyst Rahman transmitted Top Secret national defense information regarding Israel. He regularly printed classified documents and photographed them on his mobile phone, then shared them with individuals online. Length of Theft Operation: ~6 Months |
| Jack Teixeira | Nov. 12, 2024 | Mass Classified Document Leak to Discord | Air National Guardsman photographed and posted defense documents to Discord and social media. One of the most significant leaks of classified documents in United States history. Length of Theft Operation: 1 Year |
| Bryce Pedicini | March 15, 2024 | National Defense Info Sale to Foreign Agent | Chief Petty Officer Bryce Pedicini sold classified Naval information to a foreign agent by using his phone to photograph and transmit restricted documents he viewed on a secure terminal. Length of Theft Operation: 6 Months |
| Patrick Wei & Thomas Zhao | Jan 9th, 2024 | Classified Navy Leaks to China | US Navy service members used personal phones inside restricted areas to record and transmit classified blueprints, documents, equipment, and other sensitive National Defense info to Chinese intelligence. Length of Theft Operation: Almost 2 Years |
| Natalie Mayflower Edwards | June 3, 2021 | Illegally leaked confidential SARs to reporter, targeting Trump admin associates | Senior FinCEN employee used her cellphone to photograph SARs on her work computer and send them to a reporter via messaging apps. The illegally disclosed SARs pertained to Paul Manafort, Richard Gates, the Russian Embassy, Maria Butina, and Prevezon Alexander, and were the basis for 11 Buzzfeed articles. Sentenced in June 2021 to 6 months. Length of Theft Operation: 1 Year |
| John C. Fry | April 20, 2020 | Illegally leaked confidential SARs to reporters, targeting Trump admin | IRS analyst used phone to illegally transcribe and verbally disclose confidential financial information displayed on his workstation terminal to reporters on several occasions. |
Over the past decade, smartphones have become the preferred covert channel for officials and contractors inside foreign ministries, state-owned firms, and intelligence services who decide to siphon off sensitive data. These are a selection of high-profile cases of Mobile Device Insider Threats from Government bodies around the world:
| Case Name | Date Charged | Summary | Source |
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