Whether or not you’re a Chinese spy, you shouldn’t download porn onto a NASA laptop

Bo Jiang, a Chinese research scientist who worked at a NASA facility and was suspected of stealing secrets, is expected to plead guilty today–not for espionage, but for downloading porn on his work computer.

Mr Bo, 31, was fired in January for taking a NASA laptop on holiday to China and shortly afterwards named a threat to national security. In March, when Mr Bo was back in the US, authorities panicked when they found out he had booked a one-way ticket to Beijing. He was hauled off the plane and arrested for making a false statement to law enforcement about what he was taking with him.

As suspected, his laptop carried illegally-obtained content, just not the sort agents expected. All US authorities have been able to do is charge Mr Bo with a misdemeanor for “unlawfully downloaded copyrighted movies and sexually explicit films onto his NASA laptop.” The charge for making a false statement “has been resolved,” a prosecutor said, without providing details.

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