Peter Williams, a veteran cybersecurity executive who was head of hacking and surveillance technology at US defense contractor L3Harris, has been ordered to pay $10 million to his former employer. Williams was at the center of the worst leak of advanced hacking tools in the history of the United States and its closest allies.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered Williams to pay that amount in restitution in addition to the $1.3 million he was already ordered to pay L3Harris. Mr Williams, a 39-year-old Australian national, previously worked for one of Australia's intelligence agencies and was general manager of Trenchent until last year. Born from the acquisition of two sister startups, Trenchint is a division of L3Harris that develops advanced spyware and hacking tools and sells them to the U.S. government and its allies in the so-called Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance, a coalition of five English-speaking countries that share sensitive information with each other. In addition to the United States, the alliance includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Veteran cybersecurity reporter Kim Zetter first reported the new compensation order in her newsletter.
Williams' attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Last year, Williams was arrested and charged with stealing seven unspecified trade secrets from Trentint (almost certainly cyber exploits, code to hijack software vulnerabilities, and surveillance technology) and selling them to Operation Zero. The Russian company says it acts as a broker for buying and selling hacking tools and only works with the Russian government and local companies.
Mr. Williams pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
Mr. Williams made $1.3 million by selling trade secrets, which he used to buy a luxury watch, a house near Washington, D.C., and a family vacation. Trenchent told prosecutors that Williams' thefts cost him up to $35 million.
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U.S. prosecutors said Williams “betrayed” the United States and its allies by providing Operation Zero, which the U.S. government calls “one of the world's most vicious exploit brokers,” tools that could have been used to hack “millions of computers and devices around the world.”
As TechCrunch previously reported, Williams used his privileged “full access” to Trentint's internal network to siphon tools from the company's offices. After Williams sold the hacking tools to Operation Zero, some of it was eventually used by Russian government spies in Ukraine and later by Chinese cybercriminals, according to former L3 Harris employees who recognized the stolen code in a cybersecurity study published by Google after investigating the cyberattack in which those tools were deployed.
Mr. Williams also attempted to charge one of his employees with theft.
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