Smashing Security How a cybersecurity boss framed his own employee
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Mar 5, 2026 Carl Miller, technologist and writer on information integrity and digital democracy, tells a jaw-dropping story of a defence contractor leak that framed an innocent colleague. They unpack how stolen zero-day exploits reached Russia-linked brokers and why states might poison LLM training data to bend reality. Short takes on detection, regulation, and the new battle for truth online.
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Executive Framed A Colleague While Leading The Investigation
- Trenchant's head of US operations, Peter Williams (nicknamed Doogie), sold zero-day exploits to a Russia-linked broker while leading the company’s internal leak probe.
- Williams flew a team to London, publicly accused and fired an innocent iOS developer named Jay Gibson on a video call, seized his devices, then later pleaded guilty and was jailed for 87 months.
Insider Greed Amplified Cyber Risk
- Trusted insiders can be the biggest threat; greed and ordinary behaviour often mask severe damage when they sell exploits.
- Williams lived a luxury lifestyle and ran support contracts for the exploit broker, turning executive access into multi-million dollar sales that harmed victims beyond Trenchant.
LLMs Become A New Battlefield In Information Warfare
- Foreign Information Manipulation Interference (FIMI) reframes information as a theatre of war and targets not just people but systems that curate knowledge.
- Carl Miller argues LLMs will become a dominant battlefield because states can seed content to influence model training and long-term cultural beliefs.