US defence contractor ordered to pay $10M for selling hacking tools to Russian broker

Federal prosecutors said the defendant transferred to personal servers the source code of zero-day exploits developed by US national-security subcontractors before he left the firm. Some of that code was later sold by a broker subsequently linked to Russian intelligence.

The court found the defendant breached his contractual confidentiality obligations and caused damages to his former employers. The award covers development time, lost contract revenue and forensic-investigation costs; a separate criminal prosecution remains underway.

The ruling pushes US defence and sensitive-software firms to revisit access-control and audit-trail policies. Industry analysts say insurance premiums and intelligence-based hiring screens will tighten in the coming quarter.