It was recently found out that three former US intelligence operatives have admitted to having carried out hacking operations for the United Arab Emirates.

Indeed, it was reported that the three men – US citizens Marc Baier and Ryan Adams, and former US citizen Daniel Gericke – were working for an unnamed UAE-based firm and hacked into servers, computers, and phones around the world. They previously worked for a US company that provided cyber services to a UAE government agency in compliance with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

After joining the UAE-based company, they started to execute hacking operations for the benefit of the UAE government without following the regulations or having the required licenses from the US. They have developed two sophisticated ‘zero-click’ computer hacking and intelligence gathering systems that were able to compromise devices.

The US justice department has then declared that the three men have leveraged the systems illegally and obtained unauthorized access to computers and mobile phones around the world. The three former US intelligence operatives have agreed to pay $1.7 million in order to account for the computer fraud, access device fraud, and violating export controls charges.