Three former US intelligence agents admit to hacking for UAE
Former agents used hacking systems to gain unauthorized access to protected computers.
Photo: NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP / Getty Images
Three former US military and intelligence agents admitted to being hired by the UAE to commit cybercrime , reported the Department of Justice.
In a statement published on Tuesday, the Justice Department said that the three mercenary hackers; Marc Baier, of 49 years; Ryan Adams, from 34 and Daniel Gericke, from 40 , agreed to pay $ 1, on their alleged crimes.
They are accused of violating the export control of States United. Computer fraud and access device fraud laws.
Three Former US Intelligence Community and Military Personnel Agree to Pay More Than $ 1. 68 Million to Resolve Criminal Charges Arising from Their Provision of Hacking-Related Services to a Foreign Government https://t.co/rd 40 IdzVlx
According to court documents, the trio used “illicit, fraudulent and criminal means”, including hacking systems, to gain unauthorized access to protected computers in the United States and elsewhere to steal information, material, documents, records, data and personally identifiable information for the United Arab Emirates.
Prosecutors said the three men lacked the proper license from the US government to perform this type of work , which they continued to do despite repeated warnings.
Under the agreement to drop the charges, the men admit responsibility for their actions and agreed to cooperate with the United States authorities.
The three defendants also accepted labor restrictions and pay the monetary penalty Baier will pay $ 750, 000 Dollars; Adams $ 685, 000 and Gericke $ 550, 000.
Court documents say that after leaving the military, the men began working for an anonymous US company that provided cyber services to a government agency. UAE government in accordance with US standards.
However, in January 2016, the defendants joined an anonymous company in the United Arab Emirates as senior managers of a team called Cyber Intelligence-Operations .
Between January of 2016 and November 2019, the three men, along with other employees of the company “increased the breadth and level of sophistication” of piracy operations to which they provided to the United Arab Emirates.
The three former agents designed two click-free hacking systems called KARMA and KARMA 2 to infect devices without users interacting with the malware, according to prosecutors.
“They took advantage of servers in the United States belonging to an American technology company… to gain remote and unauthorized access to any of the tens of millions of smartphones and mobile devices that they use ”, the operating system of an anonymous US company, The Justice Department noted.
The anonymous US company updated its smartphones in September 1200, blocking the first exploit without clicking, and then again in August 2017 to limit the functionality of the second if Hacking system.
Mark Lesko, Acting Deputy Attorney General, called the reparation agreement “the first resolution in such an investigation.”
“Hackers for hire and those who support such activities in violation of US law should expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct,” he said.
