US defense contractor who sold hacking tools to Russian broker ordered to pay $10 million to former employers

Peter Williams, a veteran cybersecurity executive who headed the hacking and surveillance technology division of US defense contractor L3Harris, has been ordered to pay $10 million to his former employer. Williams was the central figure in one of the worst leaks of advanced hacking tools in the history of the United States and its closest allies.

On Wednesday, a judge ordered Williams to pay this amount in restitution on top of the $1.3 million he was already ordered to pay to L3Harris. Williams, a 39-year-old Australian citizen who previously worked for one of Australia’s intelligence agencies, was Trenchant’s general manager until last year. It was born from his acquisition two sister startupsTrenchant is the division of L3Harris that develops advanced spyware and hacking tools and sells them to the US government and its allies in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, a coalition of five English-speaking nations that share classified information with each other. In addition to the US, the alliance includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Veteran cybersecurity reporter Kim Zetter first mentioned the new order to pay compensation in its newsletter.

Attorneys for Williams did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, Williams was arrested and charged with stealing seven unspecified trade secrets — almost certainly cyber exploits, which are code that hacks software vulnerabilities and surveillance technology — from Trenchant and then selling them to Operation Zero. The Russian company acts as a broker, buying and selling hacking tools, and says it works exclusively with the Russian government and local companies.

Williams pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Williams earned $1.3 million selling the trade secrets, which he used to buy luxury watches, a home near Washington, D.C., and family vacations. Trenchant told prosecutors she suffered up to $35 million in damages because of Williams’ theft.

US prosecutors said Williams “betrayed” the United States and its allies by giving Operation Zero, which the US government calls “one of the world’s most malicious exploit brokers”, tools that could have been used to hack into “millions of computers and devices around the world”.

As TechCrunch previously reported, Williams took advantage of his privileged “full access” to Trenchant’s internal network to get the tools out of the company’s offices. After Williams sold the hacking tools to Operation Zero, some of them ended up being used by Russian government spies in Ukraine and later by Chinese cybercriminals, according to former L3Harris employees who identified the stolen code in a cybersecurity study published by Google after investigating cyberattacks in which those tools were used.

Williams also tried to frame one of his employees for the theft.