{"id":8455,"date":"2015-07-08T10:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=8455"},"modified":"2015-07-08T10:00:43","modified_gmt":"2015-07-08T14:00:43","slug":"hacking-team-spyware-company-allegedly-breached-400gb-of-data-dumped-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/07\/08\/hacking-team-spyware-company-allegedly-breached-400gb-of-data-dumped-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Hacking Team spyware company allegedly breached, 400GB of data dumped online"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Italian developer of surveillance software, Hacking Team, which has previously been sharply criticized by digital activists, has apparently suffered a large data breach.<\/p>\n

Hacking Team develops surveillance tools that it has maintained are legally sold to governments for law-abiding investigations. But critics contend the company\u2019s software has been used to spy on dissidents, human rights activists and journalists.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, it appeared that Hacking Team\u2019s Twitter feed was taken over. The banner on the page had been changed to \u201cHacked Team.\u201d Several posts contained screenshots that are purportedly of the stolen data, which included emails sent by Hacking Team\u2019s founder and CEO, Vincent Vincenzetti.<\/p>\n

Hacking Team officials could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n

The data stolen amounts to some 400GB, according to Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the Speech, Privacy and Technology project of the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n

Soghoian, who has frequently criticized Hacking Team, wrote in another Twitter post that the data \u201cdump includes an .xls spreadsheet listing every government client, when they first bought HT and revenue to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

That kind of data, if accurate, could be immensely damaging to Hacking Team, which has sought to defend its operations amid a variety of accusations from critics over who buys its software and how it\u2019s used.<\/p>\n

Hacking Team has been under consistent fire from organizations such as the University of Toronto\u2019s Citizen Lab. One of Hacking Team\u2019s main products is the Remote Control System, which is a suite of tools that enables secret remote access of a computer.<\/p>\n

In a February 2014 study, Citizen Lab said RCS appears to have been used by 21 countries such as Azerbaijan, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE and Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

Some of those countries, Citizen Lab noted, have questionable human rights records, and it\u2019s believed that some governments may have used RCS to monitor the activities of civil rights activists.<\/p>\n

via Hacking Team spyware company allegedly breached, 400GB of data dumped online | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Italian developer of surveillance software, Hacking Team, which has previously been sharply criticized by digital activists, has apparently suffered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[456,1110],"class_list":["post-8455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-software","tag-hacking-team","tag-twitter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-2cn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8465,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/07\/13\/hacking-teams-arsenal-included-at-least-three-unpatched-exploits-for-flash-player\/","url_meta":{"origin":8455,"position":0},"title":"Hacking Team’s arsenal included at least three unpatched exploits for Flash Player","author":"NCCT","date":"July 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently breached surveillance software maker, Hacking Team, had access to three different exploits for previously unknown vulnerabilities in Flash Player. All of them are now out in the open, putting Internet users at risk. Milan-based Hacking Team develops and sells surveillance software to government agencies from around the world. On\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6649,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/10\/16\/security-firm-discovers-windows-zero-day-claims-russian-hackers-used-it-to-target-nato-ukraine\/","url_meta":{"origin":8455,"position":1},"title":"Security firm discovers Windows zero-day, claims Russian hackers used it to target NATO, Ukraine","author":"NCCT","date":"October 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A Russian hacking group has been exploiting a security flaw in Microsoft Windows to spy on NATO, the Ukrainian government, the European Union, an American academic organization, and companies in telecommunications and energy sectors, according to cyber intelligence firm iSight Partners. 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