A former cybersecurity company official charged with stealing trade secrets to sell them to a Russian buyer pleaded guilty to two counts of theft of trade secrets in U.S. District Court today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Peter Williams, 39, an Australian national, pleaded guilty to the charges “in connection with selling his employer’s trade secrets to a Russian cyber-tools broker,” the Justice Department said in a press release.
The Justice Department said Williams stole “national-security focused software that included at least eight sensitive and protected cyber-exploit components” over a three-year period from the U.S. defense contractor where he worked.
The Justice Department didn’t name the company where Williams worked, but reports have said Williams is a former director and general manager at L3Harris Trenchant, which does vulnerability and security work for government clients.
“Those components were meant to be sold exclusively to the U.S. government and select allies,” the Justice Department said. “Williams sold the trade secrets to a Russian cyber-tools broker that publicly advertises itself as a reseller of cyber exploits to various customers, including the Russian government.”
Each of the charges carries a statutory maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, the Justice Department says, and Williams also must pay $1.3 million in restitution.
U.S. Places Value of Stolen Trade Secrets at $35 Million
The U.S. places the value of the stolen trade secrets at $35 million, according to statements from officials.
“Williams placed greed over freedom and democracy by stealing and reselling $35 million of cyber trade secrets from a U.S. cleared defense contractor to a Russian Government supplier,” Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division said in a statement. “By doing so, he gave Russian cyber actors an advantage in their massive campaign to victimize U.S. citizens and businesses. This plea sends a clear message that the FBI and our partners will defend the homeland and bring to justice anyone who helps our adversaries jeopardize U.S. national security.
According to the facts admitted in connection with the guilty plea, the Justice Department said that from approximately 2022 through 2025, “Williams improperly used his access to the defense contractor’s secure network to steal the cyber exploit components that constituted the trade secrets.”
The government says he resold those components “in exchange for the promise of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. To effectuate these sales, Williams entered into multiple written contracts with the Russian broker, which involved payment for the initial sale of the components, and additional periodic payments for follow-on support. Williams transferred the eight components and trade secrets to the Russian broker through encrypted means.”
Williams reportedly worked for the Australian Signals Directorate before L3Harris Trenchant.
Trenchant’s Secretive Security Business
Trenchant was created following the acquisitions of Azimuth Security and Linchpin Labs by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies.
According to a company web page, Trenchant’s solutions include vulnerability and exploit research, APIs for intelligence operations, “device and access capabilities,” and computer network operations (CNO) products.
TechCrunch put that in plainer terms, saying Trenchant “develops spyware, exploits, and zero-days — security vulnerabilities in software that are unknown to its maker. Trenchant sells its surveillance tech to government customers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom, the so-called Five Eyes intelligence alliance.”
