FILE – This Feb 23, 2019, file photo shows the inside of a computer. Three former U.S. intelligence and military operatives have agreed to pay nearly $1.7 million to resolve criminal charges that they provided sophisticated hacking technology to the United Arab Emirates. A charging document in federal court in Washington accuses them of helping develop “advanced covert hacking systems for U.A.E. government agencies.” (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three former U.S. intelligence and military operatives have agreed to pay nearly $1.7 million to resolve criminal charges that they provided sophisticated hacking technology to the United Arab Emirates.

A charging document in federal court in Washington accuses the defendants — Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke — of helping develop “advanced covert hacking systems for U.A.E. government agencies.” It says they used stolen credentials to access personal and private information from computers, including from companies in the United States.

The Justice Department described the case as the first of its kind.

“Hackers-for-hire and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of U.S. law should fully expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct,” said Mark Lesko, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s national security division.

No lawyers were listed for the men.

Baier is identified in a 2019 Reuters news story as previously having worked in an elite hacking unit of the National Security Agency.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.