[6][citation needed] DarkMatter was founded in either 2014[3][4] or 2015[5] by Emirati business man Faisal al-Bannai, the founder of mobile phone vendor Axiom Telecom and the son of a major general in the Dubai Police Force.

He stated, "We did not hack Americans...Our mission was simple: advise and assist UAE to create a national cyber security program similar to NTOC (NSA/CSS Threat Operations Center)."

"[25] On 9 December 2021, Loujain al-Hathloul filed a lawsuit in a US district court in Oregon against three former US intelligence and military officers, who carried out hacking operations on behalf of the UAE.

According to the lawsuit, the three men — Marc Baier, Ryan Adams, and Daniel Gericke — worked for DarkMatter and assisted the Emirati security officials to exfiltrate data from her iPhone.

[27] In December 2021, U.S. lawmakers urged the Treasury and State Departments to sanction DarkMatter, NSO Group, Nexa Technologies, and Trovicor.

[28] On 26 August 2022, the three former U.S. intelligence operatives who helped the UAE spy on human rights activists, journalists, and governments were barred from arms export activities under a deal announced by the State Department.

The operatives, Marc Baier, Ryan Adams, and Daniel Gericke, admitted their involvement in Project Raven on 15 September 2022, resulting in them relinquishing their security clearance and paying $1.68 million in exchange for their criminal charges being dropped.

[1] Such capabilities, if misused, would allow DarkMatter to more easily deploy rootkits to targets' devices, and to decrypt HTTPS communications of Firefox users via man-in-the-middle attacks.

[42] In August 2019, Google blocked websites approved by DarkMatter, after Reuters reported the firm's involvement in a hacking operation led by the United Arab Emirates.

[43] As of 2020, DarkMatter has been under investigation by the FBI for crimes including digital espionage services, involvement in the Jamal Khashoggi assassination, and incarceration of foreign dissidents.

[44] On September 14, 2021, Marc Baier, 49, Ryan Adams, 34, and Daniel Gericke, 40, had each been indicted for violations of United States laws involving computer fraud and improper exporting of technology.

In 2018 Faisal al-Bannai confirmed that DarkMatter worked very closely with the government of the UAE and was a competitor of the Israeli firm NSO Group.

From January 2016 to November 2019, the trio of Marc Baier, Ryan Adams, and Daniel Gericke significantly improved the services that DarkMatter provided to the government of the UAE.

[inconsistent] Both Obama and O'Brien visited the al-Udeid airbase which hosts the forward base headquarters of United States Central Command and the RAF's No.

Additionally, the airbase has served as the headquarters of the United States Air Force Central Command during the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[55] In January 2020 during the FBI investigations into DarkMatter employees' conduct, the United States Congress passed a law proposed in 2019 by congressperson Max Rose of New York.