Here’s How a Hack Took Down Other ‘Legitimate’ Hackers

Before we continue, you might be wondering how could there be ‘legitimate’ hackers. Well, companies such as the one that got hacked, by the name of Hacking Team, exist out there. They usually sell their hacks and services to governments or secret agencies, which make them a key ally and are allowed to continue their work. However, the latest hack proved that even they can be taken down.

Hacking Team is known for selling its services to agencies such as the FBI, DEA, Australian police, or even countries such as Bahrain, Ethiopia, and Sudan. However, the latter could not be proven since they could easily pin everything on their contractors and we all know how good governments and agencies are at denying allegations. Also, they had the ability to keep their code as well as other exploits they used in software products secure, so targeted individuals, companies or even other governments could not do anything about it.

But their operation came to and end, having their systems compromised by a hack that took over 400 GB of data, including their own source codes used for creating the spyware. This means that other developers can now use the data and patch or protect their systems in the future. Hacking Team is said to have been forced to close their company down until further notice, but it’s highly likely they will be operational again in the near future.

There is no official confirmation about who hacked the spyware company, but it is said that Wikileaks focused on latter companies in the past, so nobody can rule out their implications in this. However, sources say that the hack was performed by an independent freelance hacker, so this makes it even harder to pinpoint the attacker.

Thank you The Verge for providing us with this information