A former employee of Australia’s cyber spy agency is facing likely jail time in the United States after pleading guilty to selling powerful online hacking tools to Russia while working for an American defence company.

The Department of Justice said 39-year-old Peter Williams entered the plea before the District of Columbia in Washington on Wednesday, local time, in relation to two counts of theft of trade secrets.

During Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutors said that Williams reached out to a Russian based broker using an encrypted email account under the name John Taylor to negotiate deals for the software secrets he sold them.

Court records show that over three years Williams exploited his access at Trenchant, a subsidiary of L3 Harris, to steal at least eight cyber exploits, with officia

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