EDITED for better source: Source Material: GET REKT
This is just about as messed up as the title makes it sound, if not more so…
The Drug Enforcement Administration has been buying spyware produced by the controversial Italian surveillance tech company Hacking Team since 2012, Motherboard has learned.
The software, known as Remote Control System or “RCS,” is capable of intercepting phone calls, texts, and social media messages, and can surreptitiously turn on a user’s webcam and microphone as well as collect passwords.
The DEA originally placed an order for the software in August of 2012, according to both public records and sources with knowledge of the deal.
The contract, which has not been previously revealed, shows that the FBI is not the only US government agency engaged in hacking tactics, but that the DEA has also been purchasing off-the-shelf malware that could be used to spy on suspected criminals.
This revelation comes just a week after USA Today uncovered a secret program with which the DEA collected the phone records of millions of Americans for more than 20 years, a program that pre-dated and inspired the NSA’s own bulk telephone collection program, suggesting that the drug agency is sort of a pioneer in the use of surveillance.
Surveillance tech experts say the DEA’s relation with Hacking Team is further proof that methods and tools once only reserved for the military, intelligence agencies and even cybercriminals—such as drones and StingRays—are becoming commonplace in law enforcement as well.
Hacking Team, a company that helps police hack citizens, has been hacked itself. In a series of tweets from the company’s compromised Twitter account, the unknown hackers appear to have revealed embarrassing internal emails and a torrent with 400GB of internal files, source code, and communications. One particular tweet appears to show an email from Hacking Team CEO David Vincenzetti, mocking a competitor for being “severely hacked.” No hacking groups have claimed responsibility for the breach yet.
Hacking Team has more than 40 employees and sells commercial hacking software to law enforcement in several dozen countries, including Morocco, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. A recent report from Motherboard revealed that the Hacking Team also supplies spyware tools to the Drug Enforcement Agency to implant software in a suspect’s phone and record texts, emails, passwords, and monitor conversations.
Hacking Team is infamous in security circles for injecting targeted malware into YouTube and Microsoft’s Live services. Formed by two Italian programmers, the pair originally created a program called Ettercap that quickly became the weapon of choice for hackers wanting to spy on people. The success of Ettercap led to Hacking Team, and now attention from rival hackers who have renamed the company’s Twitter account to “Hacked Team.”
suggestion to make it known the police got hacked in the title
But I don’t have anything on being clear exactly, Police + Hacker Team, yes
Police Bought Hacker Team? Paid for? That is the difficult part. Using it against citizens is a major point too.
Yeah, i noticed that as well as i was reading through past the headlines on the original source. It brings up a bigger point actually, that the DEA is using “professional” hacker’s software to spy on their “subjects”. This is the NSA incident all over again.
