The US authorities have made it clear that they will have no truck with any individuals trying to by-pass regulations on trading cyberweapons with hostile powers.
Selling sensitive cyber-exploit components to a Russian company landed Australian citizen Peter Williams with an 87-month prison sentence from the US District Court for the District of Columbia on February 24.
“Williams took trade secrets comprised of national security software and sold them for up to $4 million in crypto currency. These incredibly powerful tools would have allowed Russia to access millions of digital devices,” said US Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia. “By betraying a position of trust and selling sensitive American technology, Williams’ crime is not only one of theft, it is a crime of national security.
On the same day, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Sergey Sergeyevich Zelenyuk and his company, Matrix LLC (trading as Operation Zero) for their acquisition and distribution of cyber tools harmful to US national security.
Operation Zero trades in exploits of software vulnerabilities, and offered rewards to anyone who would provide them with exploits for US products. Among the exploits that Operation Zero acquired were proprietary cyber tools that had been created for the US government. These were then sold to at least one unauthorized user.
“If you steal US trade secrets, we will hold you accountable,” said US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Treasury will continue to work alongside the rest of the Trump Administration to protect sensitive American intellectual property and safeguard our national security.”
As a result of the sanction, all property or possessions held by Zelenyek and Matrix in the US will be blocked, with the possibility of criminal charges for transaction of any assets.
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