US imposes cyber-related sanctions on Russian, UAE individuals and entities

WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The ‌U.S. on ​Tuesday ​issued cyber-related sanctions against four people and three entities, including some based in Russia and ‌the United Arab Emirates, according to the Treasury Department ⁠website.

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

In a corresponding move, the U.S. Department of State ​said one of the individuals and two of the entities hit with sanctions were also designated under the "Protecting ⁠American Intellectual Property Act (PAIPA) in connection with theft of trade secrets from U.S. ​persons."

The sanctions are related to a U.S. investigation into a former executive of a government contractor, ​for selling trade secrets to ‌a buyer in Russia - one of the entities hit with sanctions - for $1.3 million.

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

The DOJ said he took "at least eight sensitive and protected cyber-exploit components" from his job and sold them ‌to "a Russian cyber-tools broker."

An exploit 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.

(Reporting by Costas ​Pitas and Kanishka Singh; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Christian Martinez, Mark Porter and Jamie ‌Freed)

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