Italian supplier of spying tools to governments, hacked

An Italian company selling surveillance tools to governments, including several in the Middle East, to help monitor their own citizens, has itself been hacked over the weekend.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab & agencies

06 July, 2015

Hacking Team sells intrusion and surrvilenace tools to governmnets.[Hacking Team]

Italian surveillance company Hacking Team, which helps governments around the world including many in the Middle East spy on their citizens, itself was hacked on Sunday.

According to CSOonline, Hackers made off 400 GB of internal files, source code, and communications from the company, which has been described as “the enemy of the internet”, and made them publicly available for download.

Hacking Team employee Christian Pozzi tweeted, “We are awake. The people responsible for this will be arrested. We are working with the police at the moment.”

"Don't believe everything you see. Most of what the attackers are claiming is simply not true. The attackers are spreading a lot of lies about our company that is simply not true. The torrent contains a virus," He added before deleting or disabling his Twitter account.


	The ICC has accused Bashir of crimes against humanity [Getty]

The documents reveal the details of Hacking Team’s clients which include Arab countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, many of which have dubious human rights records.

Hacking Team sells its Da Vinci malware surveillance software to law enforcement and governments that critics argue is used by countries with patchy human rights records to spy on activists and journalists.

Among the countries listed in the tech company’s internal files is Sudan, which is currently under an UN arms embargo, although Hacking Team has in the past categorically denied having businesses with the country.

A contract with the Sudanese government for €480,000 ($528,800) dated to 2012 was released in the 400 GB torrent file. In another document Sudan is listed as a customer, but one that was "not officially supported."

Sudanese security forces have repeatedly and violently suppressed protestors demonstrating against the government, with more than 170 killed in 2013, according to Human Rights Watch.

In July 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court [ICC], Luis Moreno Ocampo, accused Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Darfur.

Hacking Team is listed by Reporters without Borders on its Enemies of the Internet index for its alleged sale of cyber spying tools to repressive regimes.