USA Pardons American Hackers – Tough on Russians
Three Ex-U.S. Intelligence Officers Confess to Hacking Crimes During Work With The UAE.
Three ex-American intelligence officers recruited by the United Arab Emirates admitted to hacking crimes and violation of the United States export laws that restrict the exchange of military technology to foreign governments. Furthermore, court documents revealed the US intelligence officers’ recruitment involved cyberattacks against their own country.
The reports detail a conspiracy by the three men to hand over advanced technology to the Emirates. Additionally, they aided Emirati intelligence operatives in breaches aimed at attacking and harming the enemies of the Persian Gulf Nation.
The men helped the Emirates, an American ally on close terms, gain illegal access to acquire data from computers and electronic devices located in the USA. However, the intelligence officers turned hackers hacked into security system servers in several countries.
Those arrested are Marc Baier, Ryan Adams, and Daniel Gericke-who all worked for DarkMatter. The spy company Darkmatter was an organization that has effectively become an arm of the Emirati government. They are one of many former American intelligence officers accepting lucrative jobs from foreign governments. All to bolster their abilities to mount cyber operations.
The company is said to have its origin in another company, an American firm called CyberPoint. The cyber security company known as CyberPoint won contracts from the Emirates to help protect the country from computer attacks carried out by criminal hackers.
The men conceded violating U.S. laws as a part of a three-year deferred prosecution agreement. Should the men comply with the agreement, the Justice Department will drop the criminal indictment. Instead, they will all pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines separately. They will also be barred from receiving U.S. government security clearance for life.
Both ex-intelligence officers served in the military and the intelligence community. Meanwhile, Mr. Baier worked for the National Security Agency unit that executes advanced offensive cyber operations.
