A US defense contractor who sold hacking tools to a Russian intermediary has been ordered to pay $10 million to his former employers

Peter Williamsa veteran cybersecurity executive who was head of the hacking and surveillance technology division at US defense company L3Harris, has been ordered to pay $10 million to his former employer. Williams was the central character in One of the worst leaks of advanced hacking tools in the history of the United States and its closest allies.

Wednesday, The judge ordered Williams must pay this amount in restitution in addition to the $1.3 million he was already ordered to pay to L3Harris. Williams, a 39-year-old Australian citizen, previously worked for an Australian intelligence agency and until last year was Trenchant’s managing director. Born from obsessive possession Two sister startupsTrenchant is a division of L3Harris that develops advanced spyware and hacking tools and sells them to the US government and its allies in the so-called Five Eyes intelligence alliance, an alliance of five English-speaking countries that share classified intelligence with each other. In addition to the United States, the coalition includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Veteran cybersecurity reporter Kim Zetter The new system for paying compensation was first reported In her newsletter.

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

Last year, it was Williams The detainee and the accused Seven unspecified trade secrets — almost certainly cyber exploits, code that hijacks software vulnerabilities and surveillance technology — were stolen from Trenchant and then sold to Zero operation. The Russian company that acts as an intermediary buys and sells hacking tools It says it works exclusively with the Russian government And local companies.

Williams plead guilty and He was sentenced For more than seven years in prison.

Williams made $1.3 million from the sale of trade secrets, which he used to buy luxury watches, a house near Washington, D.C., and family vacations. Trenchant told prosecutors she suffered losses of up to $35 million due to Williams’ theft.

US prosecutors said Williams “betrayed” the United States and its allies by giving Operation Zero, which the US government describes as “one of the most dangerous exploitative brokers in the world.” Tools that can be used for hacking “Millions of computers and devices around the world.”

As TechCrunch previously reportedWilliams took advantage of his privileged “full access” to Trenchant’s internal network to pull tools from 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 Chinese cybercriminals. According to former L3Harris employees who recognized the stolen code In cybersecurity research published by Google after investigating cyberattacks in which these tools were deployed.

Williams too He tried to implicate one of his employees For theft.