back to article Hacking Team hacked: Spyware source code torrent blurts govt customers

Italian surveillance-ware developer Hacking Team has been infiltrated by hackers, who have leaked online 400GB of secret source code and other internal data. The plundered booty is being shared via BitTorrent, and appears to include audio recordings, emails, documentation, invoices, and source code. Hacking Team sells the Da …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Indeed. Once we step beyond the ethics of what this company does (did?) and those who exposed the data, it will be interesting to see some proper analysis of the techniques used and if they relied on zero-day bugs, or Trojan installs, or maybe even state-instigated installation by suppliers/ISPs, etc.

    2. g e

      Employment

      How is the tech jobs market in Italy, I wonder

    3. Reghack Pauli

      That's what their customers will be fearing.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spin that

    They'll be hard pushed to screw a silver lining out of this particular cloud...

    1. Old Handle
      Trollface

      Re: Spin that

      They'll get a free code audit.

  3. iLuddite

    omg

    Is no one safe?

    1. Mark 85

      Re: omg

      No!

  4. Potemkine Silver badge

    p0wned

    'Woops team' sounds better now ^^

  5. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    Normally I would be against the hack & dump approach seen here, but in this case I just keep thinking "Live by the sword, die by the sword" over and over again, for some odd reason.

    1. Terry 6 Silver badge

      Absolutely, and when you put the sword into the hands of ethical governments like err, Saudi Arabia you'd better be sure that you have a bloody good shield.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        And that the blood is on the front, and not the back, of said shield.

  6. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Elmer Phud

      Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

      depends what your ethics are, I guess.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

        Ethics? That'th on the other thide of the Dartford crothing from Kent ithn't it?

    2. silent_count

      Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

      "Ethical" governments are the ones willing to pay for the daVinci malware. The unethical get it for free when they torrent "Window XP mega ultimate w/ activation crack" :p

      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Happy

        "Ethical" governments are the ones willing to pay for the daVinci malware.

        "The unethical get it for free when they torrent "Window XP mega ultimate w/ activation crack" :p"

        Oh yeah.

        I hate those guys.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

      Did they supply their own Government when Berlusconi was in charge?

      From the nation that gave us Mafiosi...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

        From the nation that gave us Mafiosi...

        Oh puhleeze, they also gave us spaghetti, pizza and decent coffee. And without the latter two there would not be any software :)

        Personally I'm not sorry they got hacked. Anyone who uses the term "ethical" to defend a business model without offering the required transparency to back that up pushes my BS detector well into the red.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

        Nope. Based on extensive experience with my Italian cow-orkers, I think it is safe to bet that "Team Berlusconi" would have spent *far* more resources on obtaining and running a cracked version than a(ny) license would have cost!

    4. SW10

      Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

      --- which ones are those then?

      We'll be the judge of that—stop worrying your pretty little head.

    5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

      I know this one.

      1)They honor their contract with their supplier.

      2)They pay on time.

      3)They pay in full.

      What more can a business ask?

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    6. Midnight

      Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

      which ones are those then?

      The ones whose cheques clear, I suppose.

    7. Hud Dunlap
      Joke

      Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

      That's like the old joke: "What's an Honest Politician?" " One that stays bought"

    8. Coen Dijkgraaf

      Re: "claiming to only deal with ethical governments"

      "which ones are those then?"

      The ones where the politicians remain bought.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Phones and internet accounts 26.000 citizens of Macedonia were indiscriminately tapped during the past 9 years. This came to the light by opposition releasing some of the tapped conversations between high-ranking government officials.

    It is not known whether FinFisher or DaVinci was used for internet surveilance.

    Companies like these deserve every bit of truble and misfortune that goes to them. They help create misery for innocent people. I hope that they go out of business, even worse..

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Companies like these deserve every bit of trouble and misfortune that goes to them. They help create misery for innocent people. I hope that they go out of business, even worse..

      I would propose a slightly different approach for such people: entirely remove their right to privacy for a couple of years. They should not even be able to take a dump without it being 24/7 available to anyone who is interested, without any knowledge who watches or how many. Phonecalls with live taps, SMS and messaging live mirrored, their computer desktop visible in read-only web broadcast - the works. Basically, move their entire private and business lives inside a panopticon and give them what they have no problem creating for others. Ditto for any government official who proposes measures to invade privacy without the required controls, accountability and transparency that such measures require (no, be realistic - law enforcement needs those tools and that's IMHO OK, it's the abuse that is the problem).

  8. cryptostorm

    hacking.technology mirror

    It appears there's now a full html archive of the HackedDreams dump, via:

    http://hacking.technology

    Cheers,

    ~ cryptostorm

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I really hope...

    ...that there are exploitable vulnerabilities in this code. Because a) more poetic justice, and b) the NSA and friends have always been telling us that they might have been intentionally attempting to weaken security of our computers and network but that's okay because only the good guys will have access to it. Oh, and c) it might help develop countermeasures against this particular product, or at least its current version anyway.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like