Hacking attack on Italy-based cybersecurity firm reveals its cooperation with repressive regime in Azerbaijan
The Italy-based cybersecurity firm Hacking Team, which works with law enforcement and national security organizations and offers legal offensive security services, using malware and vulnerabilities to gain access to target’s networks, appears to have itself been the victim of a hack. The anonymous hackers posted about 400GB documents to the company’s own Twitter feed that purport to show it sold software to repressive regimes including Azerbaijan, according to The Guardian.
The leaked documents suggest that among Hacking Team’s clients are the governments and security services of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, many of whom have been criticized by international human rights organizations for their aggressive surveillance of citizens, activists and journalists both domestically and overseas, The Guardian points.
According to Forbes, other current and former customers at Hacking Team included American bodies the FBI, the Department of Defense, and the Drug Enforcement Agency, intelligence and policing bodies from Australia, Chile, Columbia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Honduras, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Poland, Spain, South Korea, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia and Turkey.
Meanwhile, citing Lent.az, Haqqin.az reports that Baku court of grave crimes brought in a verdict against a group of hackers robbing Azerbaijan banks.
According to the report, the defendant Farid Hadiyev was convicted to 10 years imprisonment, Yashar Alekberov and Rinat Agarunov to 9.5 years, Nasir Ibrahimov to 6.5 years. Farrukh Bayramov and Nair Ifrahimov got 2.5 years in prison. The immediate actions of the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan revealed the fact of an unauthorized hack into various bank accounts and appropriation of large sums of money. Azerbaijani citizens were detained as suspects.