A leading cyber-security firm was humiliated yesterday when its client database was stolen and published online by hackers.
The avalanche of sensitive documents from the firm, called Hacking Team, apparently shows it deals with repressive regimes such as Sudan, former Soviet states, the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The company has always denied this.
Hackers posted 400GB of data, equivalent to 36 million pages of text, on the firm’s Twitter feed and renamed it Hacked Team. The leaks included emails, invoices, photographs and Skype video calls.
There was also evidence that the company based in Italy has been in email correspondence with the Metropolitan Police and National Crime Agency. It was not clear if they were customers or if Hacking Team was helping investigators with other inquiries.
The company is most famous for its ‘offensive security services’, which can infiltrate smartphones and computers. Campaigners suspect they have been used to target political and commercial opponents.
After the leak, critics said that Hacking Team broke a basic security rule by using passwords such as ‘Passw0rd’ and ‘Pas$w0rd’. – Daily Mail