The FBI secretly arrested a second NSA leaker

The FBI secretly arrested a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor working for the NSA in recent weeks that may be linked to the high-profile leak of the agency's hacking tools, The New York Times is reporting.

The contractor, who has not been named, is suspected of taking the top-secret computer code the agency had been using to break into computer systems of foreign adversaries.

In August, there was an unprecedented breach of the NSA's hacking tools, which included a number of previously unknown "zero day" exploits the agency's hackers could use to more easily break into targeted computers. The leaked files appeared online in a bizarre auction by a group calling itself "The Shadow Brokers," though some suspected it was an insider responsible.

The Times did not specifically link that leak with the arrest of the contractor, though the timing would make sense.

Should this insider be implicated in that leak, it would be another embarrassment for not only the agency - still reeling from the Edward Snowden leaks - but also Booz Allen Hamilton, which employed them both.

Booz Allen Hamilton declined to comment. Business Insider has also reached out to the FBI for comment.

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