The hacked surveillance company with alleged ties to Russia and the Sudan is reportedly in crisis mode
Jul 7, 2015, 03:55 IST
Hacking Team, however, has claimed it never sells its software "to countries that international organizations including the European Union, NATO and the US have blacklisted." But the newly leaked documents suggest that it has done business with Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Russia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. Basic security ineptitude may have caused the breach. Included in the leaked documents was a list of company passwords, many of which were reused and disturbingly easy to crack (including variants of the word "password").Motherboard's source told the website that none of the files in the data dump were encrypted, and the company entrusted its most confidential data with new employees who may have followed reckless practices. Nothing, however, has been confirmed as the company has been silent. An employee named Christian Pozzi sent out a series of defensive tweets following initial reports, but they were since deleted. In it, Pozzi said Hacking Team was working with the police.Beyond that, the company has yet to make a formal comment, and had not responded to inquiries from Business Insider as of press time.But if these reports turn out to be true, it may have bigger issues to deal with beyond the press: Angry government clients.