Former L3Harris Trenchant boss jailed for selling hacking tools to Russian broker

Source: TechCrunch

Peter Williams, a former U.S. defense contractor boss, was sentenced Feb. 24 to seven years in prison for stealing and selling his former company’s hacking and surveillance tools to a Russian firm. Williams was the general manager of Trenchant, a division of the defense contractor L3Harris that sells hacking and surveillance tools — typically known as zero-days — to the U.S. government and a select group of its top allies, known as the Five Eyes, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK. Last year, Williams, 39, an Australian citizen who resides in Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to selling seven Trenchant trade secrets to a Russian broker. While prosecutors didn’t name the company at the time, the U.S. Treasury Department now confirms that the broker is Operation Zero and announced sanctions against the company. Full Story