Treasury sanctions Russian firm said to have stolen and sold US cyber tools

The sanctions coincide with an FBI investigation into Peter Williams, a former employee of U.S. defense contractor L3Harris who pleaded guilty to selling cyber exploits to a Russian entity.

The Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned Russian firm Operation Zero and several affiliated individuals for allegedly buying stolen cyber tools originally developed for the U.S. government and reselling them for millions in cryptocurrency.

Treasury also sanctioned the company’s leader, Sergey Sergeyevich Zelenyuk, for the firm’s role in allegedly acquiring the eight proprietary cybersecurity tools built by a U.S. company that were meant for use by the federal government and select allies. The company resold the stolen tools to “at least one unauthorized user,” Treasury said.

Operation Zero trades in cyber exploits, which include various software toolkits containing specialized code built to steal data and compromise computer systems.

The sanctions against the firm and Zelenyuk run parallel ...