The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned Sergey Sergeyevich Zelenyuk and his company, Matrix LLC (operating as Operation Zero), along with five associated individuals and entities, for their role in acquiring and distributing proprietary cyber tools created exclusively for the U.S. government. These tools were stolen from a U.S. company and sold to unauthorized users, posing a significant threat to U.S. national security. This action marks the first invocation of the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act to address trade secret theft impacting national security, underscoring intensified U.S. efforts against foreign exploit brokers. Additionally, the Treasury’s actions coincide with a Department of Justice and FBI investigation into Peter Williams, a former U.S. company employee who pleaded guilty to trade secret theft and who sold these cyber tools to Operation Zero.
Operation Zero targeted in first-ever US sanctions for cyber tool theft
