The US Treasury Department has sanctioned a Russian company, Operation Zero, and the individuals who run it after accusing them of purchasing stolen cyber tools for millions in cryptocurrency and reselling the technologies, created for use by the US government.
The tools purchased and sold by the recently sanctioned Sergey Sergeyevich Zelenyuk and his company, Operation Zero, were allegedly initially stolen by an Australian national, Peter Williams, who formerly worked at the defense contractor that made the national security-focused software “for the exclusive use of the U.S. government and certain allies.” Williams pleaded guilty last year to selling trade secrets.
“Treasury will continue to work alongside the rest of the Trump Administration to protect sensitive American intellectual property and safeguard our national security,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Zelenyuk and the others would be the first people to be sanctioned under US intellectual property protection law. Sanctions imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control prevent Americans from doing business with the reported individuals or others who do business with them. “Operation Zero sought to recruit hackers to support its activities and develop business relationships with foreign intelligence agencies using social media,” the Treasury Department said in its statement. The charges state that the tools were offered for sale to those seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in computer software.
Although the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control alleged that cryptocurrencies were used in the transactions, it did not list specific addresses to be blacklisted.
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