Former L3Harris Cyber ​​Boss has pleaded guilty to selling trade secrets to a Russian company

Former executive in a selling company Zero-day vulnerabilities The United States and its allies pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to selling at least $1.3 million worth of trade secrets to a buyer in Russia, according to US prosecutors.

Peter Williams, a 39-year-old Australian citizen residing in the US, faced two counts of theft of trade secrets. As part of the plea agreement, Williams faces 87 to 108 months in prison and fines of up to $300,000. He must also pay $1.3 million in restitution.

Williams is scheduled to be sentenced early next year. Until then, he will remain on home confinement in his apartment, must undergo electronic monitoring, and be allowed to leave his home for one hour each day, according to the plea agreement.

Williams had worked for less than a year as a director at L3 Harris Trenchant — a subsidiary of U.S.-based defense contractor L3Harris Technologies — when he resigned in mid-August from the company for unspecified reasons, according to UK company records. However, prosecutors said at the hearing that he had been working for the company or its predecessor since at least 2016. Prior to his work at Trenchant, Williams reportedly He worked for the Australian Signals Directorateduring the 2010s. The ASD is equivalent to the US National Security Agency and is responsible for the cyber defense of Australian government systems as well as the collection of foreign signals intelligence. As part of its signals intelligence work, ASD has the authority to conduct hacking operations using the types of tools sold by Trenchant and other companies.

This month the Ministry of Justice Accused Williams Stealing eight trade secrets from two companies and selling them to a buyer in Russia between April 2022 and August 2025, a time period that partially coincides with Williams’ employment at L3 Trenchant.

The document did not name the two companies, nor did it mention whether the buyer, whom prosecutors described as a Russia-based software broker, was connected to the Russian government.

Prosecutors said the unidentified Russian company was in the business of purchasing zero-day vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities from researchers and selling them to other Russian companies and “non-NATO countries.” Prosecutors also read a September 2023 social media post by the Russian company in which it said it had increased payments for some mobile exploit software to between $200,000 and $20 million. A September 26, 2023, published on X Operation Zero, which describes itself as “the only Russian platform for purchasing zero-day vulnerabilities,” used identical language.

Operation Zero did not immediately respond to a request for comment.