Washington imposes sanctions for cybercrime on individuals and entities from Russia and UAE

(Patria) - The United States has imposed sanctions related to cybercrime against four individuals and three legal entities, including some based in Russia and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Treasury Department's website, Reuters reported.

The entities and individuals are targeted "for their acquisition and distribution of cyber tools harmful to U.S. national security," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

In a related move, the U.S. State Department announced that one of the sanctioned individuals and two sanctioned legal entities have also been designated under the "Protecting American Intellectual Property Act (PAIPA) in connection with the theft of trade secrets from U.S. persons".

The sanctions relate to a U.S. investigation into a former government contractor executive for selling trade secrets to a buyer in Russia, one of the sanctioned legal entities, for $1.3 million.

The former executive, Peter Williams of L3Harris, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of trade secret theft. The Justice Department said in a separate statement that Williams was sentenced on Tuesday to 87 months in federal prison.

The Justice Department stated that he took "at least eight sensitive and protected cyber exploitation components" from his job and sold them to a "Russian cyber tool broker." Exploitation is a piece of code that can be used to take advantage of a software vulnerability, typically for the purpose of theft, espionage, or sabotage.