Security News > 2022 > September > Ex-NSA trio who spied on Americans for UAE now banned from arms exports

Three former US government cyber-spies who, among other things, illicitly compromised and snooped on Americans' devices for the United Arab Emirates government have been banned from participating in international arms exports under a deal reached with Uncle Sam.

Per the terms of the agreements, Ryan Adams [PDF], Marc Baier [PDF] and Daniel Gericke [PDF], all three former NSA operatives, will be "Debarred," meaning they are prohibited from participating in any activities regulated under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations for three years.

Considering the men were charged with providing hacking-for-hire services - getting paid to break into targets' devices and steal data, for instance - to UAE government agencies against US devices and users, it's probably safe to assume that any such request will be swiftly denied.

According to the US Justice Department [PDF], Adams, Baier and Gericke all worked as senior managers at DarkMatter and carried out hacking services for the UAE government, including deploying zero-click exploits to install spyware on target devices, between 2016 and 2019.

Performing these cyber-mercenary operations for the UAE constituted a "Defense service," which required a license from the State Department.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the State Department's more recent sanctions against the three men.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/09/02/us_cyber_spies_debarred/