US security official who sold hacking equipment to Russian broker ordered to pay $10 million to former employers

Peter Williamsformer cyber security chief who was the head of the US security technology group L3Harris, has been ordered to pay $10 million to his former employer. Williams was a middle man one of the worst cases of the most sophisticated weapons in the history of the United States and its closest allies.

Wednesday, the judge ordered Williams to pay the money in return for the $1.3 million he was previously ordered to pay to L3Harris. Williams, a 39-year-old Australian who used to work in the Australian intelligence agency, was until last year the chief executive of Trenchant. Born by acquisition two founding sistersTrenchant is a group of L3Harris that develops sophisticated spy software and hacking tools and sells them to the US government and its allies called the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, an alliance of five English-speaking countries that share intelligence with each other. In addition to the US, the agreement includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Former cybersecurity reporter Kim Zetter first report of the new system to pay the refund in his letters.

Williams’ attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, Williams was arrested and charged Stealing seven undisclosed trade secrets – mostly web applications, software hacking rules, and monitoring technology – from Trenchant and selling them Operation Zero. A Russian company that works as a broker, buys and sells weapons, and this it says it works with the Russian government and local companies.

Williams he pleaded guilty and he was judged up to more than 7 years in prison.

Williams made $1.3 million selling trade secrets, which he used to buy luxury watches, a house near Washington DC, and family vacations. Trenchant told prosecutors that he had lost $35 million as a result of Williams’ theft.

U.S. prosecutors said Williams “betrayed” the United States and its allies by delivering Operation Zero, which the U.S. government calls “one of the most brutal business operations in the world,” they said. tools that can be used for hacking “Millions of computers and devices around the world.”

As TechCrunch previously reportedWilliams used his “full access” to Trenchant’s internal network to remove weapons from the company’s offices. After Williams sold the weapons to Operation Zero, some of which ended up being used by Russian spies in Ukraine, and later by Chinese pirates, according to former L3Harris employees who identified the stolen number in a cybersecurity study that Google published after investigating a cyberattack on how the tools were installed.

Williams too he tried to make one of his employees about stealing.