Zero-days

How an ex-L3 Harris Trenchant boss stole and sold cyber exploits to Russia

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Peter Williams, the former general manager of Trenchant, a division of defense contractor L3Harris that develops surveillance and hacking tools for Western governments, pleaded guilty last week to stealing some of those tools and selling them to a Russian broker.   A court document filed in the case, as well as exclusive reporting by TechCrunch […]

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Former L3Harris Trenchant boss pleads guilty to selling zero-day exploits to Russian broker

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Peter Williams, the former general manager at defense contractor L3Harris, has pleaded guilty to selling surveillance technology to a Russian broker that buys “cyber tools,” the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed Wednesday.  “The material, stolen over a three-year period from the U.S. defense contractor where he worked, was comprised of national-security focused software that included

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U.S. government accuses former L3Harris cyber boss of stealing trade secrets

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The U.S. government has accused a former executive at defense contractor L3Harris of stealing trade secrets and selling them to a buyer in Russia, according to court documents seen by TechCrunch.  On October 14, the Department of Justice accused Peter Williams of stealing eight trade secrets from two unnamed companies. The DOJ made the allegation

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Apple alerts exploit developer that his iPhone was targeted with government spyware 

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Earlier this year, a developer was shocked by a message that appeared on his personal phone: “Apple detected a targeted mercenary spyware attack against your iPhone.”   “I was panicking,” Jay Gibson, who asked that we don’t use his real name over fears of retaliation, told TechCrunch.   Gibson, who until recently built surveillance technologies for Western

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Apple’s latest iPhone security feature just made life more difficult for spyware makers

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Buried in an ocean of flashy novelties announced by Apple this week, the tech giant also revealed new security technology for its latest iPhone 17 and iPhone Air devices. This new security technology was made specifically to fight against surveillance vendors and the types of vulnerabilities they rely on the most, according to Apple. The

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New zero-day startup offers $20 million for tools that can hack any smartphone

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A new United Arab Emirates-based startup is offering up to $20 million for hacking tools that could help governments break into any smartphone with a text message. Advanced Security Solutions launched this month and is now offering some of the highest prices, at least public ones, in the whole zero-day market. Zero-days are flaws in

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Trump administration to spend $1 billion on ‘offensive’ hacking operations

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The Trump administration, through the Department of Defense, plans to spend $1 billion over the next four years on what it calls “offensive cyber operations.”  The provision in Trump’s landmark One Big Beautiful Bill does not say what those “offensive cyber operations” are, nor what specific tools or software would qualify. The budget does note

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Phone chipmaker Qualcomm fixes three zero-days exploited by hackers

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Chipmaker giant Qualcomm released patches on Monday fixing a series of vulnerabilities in dozens of chips, including three zero-days that the company said may be in use as part of hacking campaigns.  Qualcomm cited Google’s Threat Analysis Group, or TAG, which investigates government-backed cyberattacks, saying the three flaws “may be under limited, targeted exploitation.”  According

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Seven things we learned from WhatsApp vs. NSO Group spyware lawsuit

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On Tuesday, WhatsApp scored a major victory against NSO Group when a jury ordered the infamous spyware maker to pay more than $167 million in damages to the Meta-owned company. The ruling concluded a legal battle spanning more than five years, which started in October 2019 when WhatsApp accused NSO Group of hacking more than

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