A company that specializes in surveillance software has been hacked, with about 400GB worth of its data stolen during the process.
The Italian company “Hacking Team” admitted to the data breach, and said they are now working with police to capture the hackers.
The stolen data has already been posted online and shared across numerous community boards. Among some of the more sensitive information is a list of countries that have bought the company’s main surveillance tool, Da Vinci, as well as emails suggesting the nations’ various intelligence agencies were using this program for the purpose of spying on activists and journalists.
These countries include:
• Azerbaijan
• Chile
• Egypt
• Kazakhstan
• Russia
• Saudi Arabia
• Spain
• Sudan
Also included: passwords and login details for various client sites.
The hackers published the stolen data, ranging from files to email messages to source codes, on the Hacking Team’s twitter account — but not before changing the name of the company’s handle to “Hacked Team” (as pictured above).
“Since we have nothing to hide, we're publishing all our e-mails, files, and source code,” read one tweet, which included a link to the company’s internal files.
“We are awake. The people responsible for this will be arrested. We are working with the police at the moment,” tweeted Hacking Team engineer Christian Pozzi. Shortly thereafter, this message — along with other tweets concerning the breach — was deleted, and Mr. Pozzi’s account was deleted.
The attack comes as no surprise to most. The Hacking Team software has long been popular with intelligence agencies all over the world, and its effectiveness — if you will — at watching over activists and reporters has landed the company on the “enemies of the Internet” list posted by human rights group Reporters Without Borders.
Worth pointing out is the fact that Hacking Team has never publicly revealed who its clients include, and has repeatedly denied selling to governments with questionable human rights policies; rather, the company has repeatedly made the case that it has an internal procedure to address human rights concerns about prospective customers.
Via BBC
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