Cybercrime : Leaked documents reveal law enforcement hacking methods

Published 2 July 2014

Through the sourcing of a leaked documents cache from the Italian firm Hacking Team, members of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab have revealed the methods of law-enforcement hackers. While much of Snowden’s revelations concerned broad international surveillance, documents from Hacking Team reveal more specific methods such as the actual techniques for tapping phones and computers to operate as eavesdropping devices.

Leaked documents demonstrate police hacking methodology // Source: wpdang.com

Through the sourcing of a leaked documents cache from the Italian firm Hacking Team, members of the University of Toronto’sCitizen Lab have revealed the methods of law-enforcement hackers. As the Houston Chronicle reports, along with a simultaneous report from the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, a more complete picture emerges of the surveillance apparatus in the wake of the 2013 Edward Snowden-led leaks of the National Security Agency (NSA).

While much of Snowden’s revelations concerned broad international surveillance, documents from Hacking Team reveal more specific methods such as the actual techniques for tapping phones and computers to operate as eavesdropping devices.

Citizen Lab researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire said, “This in many ways is the police surveillance of the now and the future. What we need to actually decide is how we’re comfortable with it being used and under what circumstances.” The two groups analyzed documents from 326 Hacking Team servers, in places including the United States, United Kingdom, and China.

Among the leaks publicized by Citizen Lab are screenshots which reveal on-off switches for recording text messages, calls, keystrokes, and browsing history. Additionally, there are controls to force infected phones to take pictures and video — effectively making the device a piece of surveillance equipment. Further, there are stealth measures taken by Hacking Team to avoid detection. The software is calibrated so that it will not drain a phone’s battery, and data can be transferred via Wi-Fi so that no extra phone plan data will be revealed.

“The victim’s got almost not chances of figuring out that their iPhone is infected,” said Sergey Golovanov of Kaspersky Lab.

Eric Rabe, Hacking Team’s chief spokesman, commented on the leak with the dismissal that everything leaked is already “well known in the security industry.” He added, “We believe the software we provide is essential for law enforcement and for the safety of all in an age when terrorists, drug dealers and sex traffickers and other criminals routinely use the Internet and mobile communications to carry out their crimes.”

Hacking Team only sells its information to governments that purportedly screens it for human rights concerns, and the firm claims there is an inner panel that evaluates client’s intentions. The Chronicle mentions that the company has targeted over thirty activists and journalists with the platform that leaked to researchers.

http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/