This seems to have spanned 2 decades and was a much larger trove of docs. Petraeus certainly avoided much more substantial punishment due to his position but that doesn't make this incident legit.
Or if we are to swallow the intended implication of the article without much investigation. The hot-button term "steal" doesn't fit how an average person would describe the situation even if "theft" is the charge he's facing.
This is the contractor who was hoarder. He took documents home and kept them. There's no implication he did anything beyond keeping them and considerable reason to think he very intended to keep the information otherwise secret.
Sure, it was a violation of protocol. It was a potential disaster if some entity found out and could take advantage. But so far, there's no implication of any information being leaked.
Do I think this is the "official story", No. Of course not. But in terms of actual national security threats; not just the ISIS/Russia/ect propaganda-- a contractor bringing home terabytes of data is worrying. This is actually a huge threat to NatSec. This isn't whistleblowing this isn't treason; it's incompetence. Whether this is where the shadowbrokers kit came from or this is a patsy, this is irresponsible.
The information this guy had is almost certainly leaked. Whether he had a "convenient" penchant for bringing his work home and became the fall guy, or whether his home was compromised, or whether he outright sold them, its obvious this was dumb.
I don't love the NSA/FBI ect. But they are gonna do what they do so they might as well do it securely.