The US government has imposed sanctions on two companies accused of buying and reselling zero-day exploits, along with their founders and associates, citing national security concerns.
The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Operation Zero, a Russian firm founded in 2021 that openly offered millions of dollars for zero-day vulnerabilities in Android devices, iPhones, and Telegram. The company has claimed it works exclusively with the Russian government and local organizations. Officials say such exploits could be used to launch ransomware attacks or carry out other malicious cyber activities.
The Treasury also sanctioned Operation Zero’s founder, Sergey Zelenyuk, accusing him of selling exploits to foreign intelligence agencies, recruiting hackers, and developing spyware capabilities. According to the government, Operation Zero obtained at least eight proprietary cyber tools that had been created for exclusive use by the US government and its allies. These tools were allegedly stolen from a US company and later sold to unauthorized users.
The sanctions are linked to an FBI investigation into Peter Williams, a former employee of defense contractor L3Harris. Williams pleaded guilty in October to selling at least eight company-developed exploits to a Russian broker. The Treasury has now confirmed that the broker was Operation Zero.
In addition to Operation Zero and Zelenyuk, the Treasury sanctioned UAE-based Special Technology Services, Zelenyuk’s assistant Marina Evgenyevna Vasanovich, and associates Azizjon Makhmudovich Mamashoyev and Oleg Vyacheslavovich Kucherov. Mamashoyev is alleged to have founded Advance Security Solutions, another UAE-based zero-day broker that offered up to $20 million for smartphone exploits capable of remote compromise via text message.
Kucherov is suspected of ties to the ransomware group TrickBot, whose members have previously faced sanctions from the US and UK.
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The sanctions were issued under a 2022 federal law allowing penalties against individuals and entities involved in significant thefts of trade secrets. The Treasury declined to answer detailed questions about the action, and the sanctioned individuals and companies did not respond to requests for comment.
