Security News > 2021 > September > Former U.S. intel operatives to pay $1.6M for hacking for foreign govt
The U.S. government has entered a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with three former intelligence operatives to resolve criminal charges relating to their offering of hacking services to a foreign government.
"These services included the provision of support, direction and supervision in the creation of sophisticated"Zero-click" computer hacking and intelligence gathering systems - i.e., one that could compromise a device without any action by the target" - the U.S. Department of Justice.
Former employees of the U.S. Intelligence Community or the U.S. military, the three agreed to pay $1,685,000 in penalties to not be prosecuted for violations of U.S. export control, computer fraud, and access device fraud laws.
After leaving the U.S. government employment, the trio joined the senior management ranks of a UAE company where they coordinated hacking operations against various targets.
They also supervised the creation of two hacking and espionage platforms called KARMA and KARMA 2, used to compromise iPhones belonging to targets of interest to the UAE. In 2019, journalists at Reuters revealed that the two hacking platforms were used by a clandestine UAE hacking team codenamed Project Raven run through a UAE-based company called DarkMatter.
The unit had more than a dozen former U.S. intelligence operatives helping the UAE with "Surveillance of other governments, militants and human rights activists critical of the monarchy."