The FBI has arrested a person for allegedly publishing classified national protection information on social networks.

James Thomas Ashbacher was taken into custody after charges that he shared highly classified security data on the internet, illegally preserved national protection material at his residence and stole equipment for night vision by the American Army’s Special Operations Command.

He faces federal charges of unauthorized broadcasting national defence information, illegal possession of defence data and theft of government property.

Ashbacher worked for a contractor offering security services and emergency management to the US Army in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he kept a very secret control permit with access to sensitive information.

His arrest came nearly two years after a federal judge sentenced a member of the Massachusetts National Air Guard to 15 years in prison in connection with his guilty plea for leaking highly classified military documents to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Jack Teixeira admitted that he illegally collected those secrets and shared them with other users on the Discard platform.

Ashbacher’s case is being investigated by the FBI’s field office in Charlotte in co-ordination with the US Army Department’s criminal investigation division.