Security world chuckles at Hacking Team’s 'virus torrent' squeals Controversial spyware maker Hacking Team claims a torrent purporting to contain source code and other documents stolen from its systems is riddled with a "virus" – a claim laughed at by independent security experts in the industry. Some 400GB of Hacking Team's internal emails, source code, and other files were published via …
Now they can get a proper job.
They wouldn't be doing this if they could do a proper job (QED, actually). On reflection, having worked on this sort of technology (or, as it's known, the dark side of tech) is also not exactly the best kind of reference for another job IMHO. Unless for some shady government setup, of course.
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Not sure why you got the down vote, unless stating the bleeding obvious wasn't that obvious.
Let me help.
Company that writes viruses has source code stolen, therefore good chance the source code forthe companies viruses are also in therefore. By this fact you could say it contains viruses.
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"Critics argue that the tech is used by countries with patchy human rights records to spy on activists and journalists."
or
"Critics argue that the tech is used by countries with patchy human rights records to spy on activists and journalists."
No caveat required really since they are all at it and recognise no limits to their surveillance.
(Like GCHQ for example.)
Ergo countries with patchy human rights records.
Yes, I'm also looking at you, Great Ol' Britain. From the somewhat safe distance of the formerly British now Chinese special administrative region...
By the way, there are countries out there that still respect human rights. For now, at least, and if only for lack of resources.
I have no particular comment on Hacking Team,
but in general their class of products - the Remote Access Trojan (RAT) - is a proportionate, targeted, data-collection device, which is aimed at a handful (or a hundred or two) of 'suspects' (for a given local definition of 'suspect' in the Sate of use)
a RAT is quite well connected to a police/Law Enforcement/Intelligence need - and is almost the exact opposite of the 5-eyes bulk system, to get a RAT you need to primarily be a suspect, [OK, which in DE has historically been a Website Developer who knew an activist etc]
At least we might have a debate, now an infomed debate, on the use of RATs or their diametrically opposite 'full-take' technology [store everybody's data-everything & data-mine for alleged crims, retrospectively, then do parallel construction, NSA, FBI, BAT etc]
well, the RAT is supposed to be used against a legitimate target, but it seems Morocco is/was HT's third biggest customer and was using their RATs to see what the UN protection Force was up to:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201507080731.html?viewall=1
is this legit or not? after all, a State can do whatever it wants to, nyet?
No caveat required really since they are all at it and recognise no limits to their surveillance.
No caveat required since "spy on activists and journalists" implies "patchy human rights record", except when it implies "abysmal human rights record". The Reg's original formulation is redundant.
They write spyware but don't have the balls to sell it illegally
They write spyware not in house to their government because of some perceived "national security" threat like NSA or GCHQ. You may not like the PoV but you accept it is one.
Spyware writing X government con-tractor X Sell to any government as long as it is a government --> zero sympathy when you get hit and lots of ROFLMA comments.
You live like a b**ch you die like a dog.
It's an Italian firm so my question is: "What's the EU going to do about it?" Mark85, I know we in the US shouldn't speak too loudly about this what with rejecting international institutions such as the ICC, but.... I thought the EU had a court just for Human Rights issues?Where are they on this?
[Of course here in the US only US citizens have rights and we are not doing so well with our government either.] I know it's an established fact that the malware was used against activsts in the EU, e. g. Great Britain, so what's up with that? Then again looking over at GB, even unwritten Bill of Rights makes no nevermind either.
I forsee a dark time rising whose end I know not will ever be found. Glad I'm gonna miss it and ain't got no kids (that I know of). European corps seem as lawless as US corps. I wonder who taught whom this.
Ponzi, another despicable character. Ponzi was a "an Italian businessman and con artist"
Try reading something a little better researched than random Wikipedia articles before you call someone "despicable". Bulgatz's Ponzi Schemes, Invaders from Mars, & More - a sort of sequel to Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions - has a popular treatment, for those afraid of real research.
The best evidence suggests Ponzi sincerely believed his scheme1 was generating wealth for his investors. He was poorly educated and innumerate, and probably not capable of even basic bookkeeping on the necessary scale. Consequently once he started getting investors, he relied on advisers, who were the real crooks. Ponzi just knew the pile of cash kept getting bigger.
1Arbitrage on international postal coupons.
Sources have appeared on Github: https://github.com/hackedteam
It gets ugly quickly. Is the purpose of this code to frame people with child pornography?
https://github.com/hackedteam/rcs-common/blob/master/lib/rcs-common/evidence/file.rb#L17
They also appear to be using cracked versions of software, for example WinHEX
You mean when one unsafe conviction gets overturned on illegal evidence? I always had my doubts about "owning" of child pron materials on a machine as I'm sure most commentards here do... it is just so easy to plant through soooo many routes and this just proves the point.
I have no truck with kiddy diddlers but knacker finds it much easier to go "there's a PC, it has child porn on, you're knicked kiddy diddler" and the jury and courts agree pretty much unquestioningly. Rather than gathering the evidence from the vulnerable victims about the vile acts most likely committed by a family friend or relative (this descends into brutal disragard for those victims if they are in our care system). If all these "cyber crimes" are seen as a bit unsafe in terms of conviction, maybe the cops might go back and do that nasty police work and really help victims rather than just add to the puddle of human misery.
Real offenders getting let off because you can no longer prove beyond reasonable doubt who put the evidence there.
The best possible outcome is that Blackstone's ratio finally wins over the witch hunters. It's a pity when the genuinely guilty can't be convicted, but we can only approach universal justice asymptotically, and it's still better than letting the innocent be framed.
The French learned during the Terror that the police state, let off the leash, will eventually bite its handlers, as have others at other historical moments. Unfortunately that sort of lesson only sticks so long.
Sorry but true justice would involve the torture-murder of the scum at The Hacking Team. Actually talking with someone who's been the victim of these governments might lend depth to the evil of THT. "All that is required for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing." Which begs the question. Does this make the hackers here Whitehats? I already have, in my so-called mind, that enough justice has yet to be done.
There's been a later development in this story; they're now admitting that some real and useful source code was leaked - and so now the terrorists can use their sophisticated surveillance tools against us!
So they have taken up the challenge to pull the other leg, some will say.
But instead of mocking that claim, I think we would be better off if we took it very seriously indeed... and went to Microsoft and demanded that they fix Windows so nobody, not terrorists, not hackers, not private surveillance companies, not even major governments, would be able to find and exploit vulnerabilities in Windows - because they will have finally gotten it right, and it will not have any of those any more.
While still being an available and useful operating system, of course.
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