#1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Platform Followed by 4.50+ million
The Hacker News Logo
Subscribe – Get Latest News
Cloud Security

Hacking Team | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Police Arrested Suspected Hacker Who Hacked the 'Hacking Team'

Police Arrested Suspected Hacker Who Hacked the 'Hacking Team'
Feb 01, 2017
Remember the Hacker who hacked Hacking Team ? In 2015, a hacker named Phineas Fisher hacked Hacking Team – the Italy-based spyware company that sells spying software to law enforcement agencies worldwide – and exposed some 500 gigabytes of internal data for anyone to download. Now, the Spanish authorities believe that they have arrested Phineas Fisher, who was not just behind the embarrassing hack of Hacking Team, but also hacked the UK-based Gamma International, another highly secretive company which sells the popular spyware called " FinFisher ." During an investigation of a cyber attack against Sindicat De Mossos d'Esquadra (SME), Spain's Catalan police union, police in Spain have arrested three people, one of which detained in the city of Salamanca is suspected of being Fisher, according to local newspaper ARA . The cyber attack was carried out in May last year when Fisher announced via his own Twitter account that he had hacked the SME and also publ

37-Year-Old 'Syrian Electronic Army' Hacker Pleads Guilty in US court

37-Year-Old 'Syrian Electronic Army' Hacker Pleads Guilty in US court
Sep 29, 2016
One of the FBI's Most Wanted Hackers who was arrested in Germany earlier this year has pleaded guilty to federal charges for his role in a scheme that hacked computers and targeted the US government, foreign governments, and multiple US media outlets. Peter Romar, 37, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a federal court in Alexandria to felony charges of conspiring to receive extortion proceeds and to illegally access computers in his role as a member of the infamous hacking group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced . Romar was previously extradited from Germany on request of the United States. "Cybercriminals cannot hide from justice," said U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente for the Eastern District of Virginia. "No matter where they are in the world, the United States will vigorously pursue those who commit crimes against U.S. citizens and hold them accountable for their actions." In March, the US charged thr

Timing is Everything: The Role of Just-in-Time Privileged Access in Security Evolution

Timing is Everything: The Role of Just-in-Time Privileged Access in Security Evolution
Apr 15, 2024Active Directory / Attack Surface
To minimize the risk of privilege misuse, a trend in the privileged access management (PAM) solution market involves implementing just-in-time (JIT) privileged access. This approach to  privileged identity management  aims to mitigate the risks associated with prolonged high-level access by granting privileges temporarily and only when necessary, rather than providing users with continuous high-level privileges. By adopting this strategy, organizations can enhance security, minimize the window of opportunity for potential attackers and ensure that users access privileged resources only when necessary.  What is JIT and why is it important?   JIT privileged access provisioning  involves granting privileged access to users on a temporary basis, aligning with the concept of least privilege. This principle provides users with only the minimum level of access required to perform their tasks, and only for the amount of time required to do so. One of the key advantages of JIT provisioning

NSA's Hacking Group Hacked! Bunch of Private Hacking Tools Leaked Online

NSA's Hacking Group Hacked! Bunch of Private Hacking Tools Leaked Online
Aug 15, 2016
It seems like the NSA has been HACKED! Update: The NSA Hack — What, When, Where, How, Who & Why? Explained Here. An unknown hacker or a group of hackers just claimed to have hacked into " Equation Group " -- a cyber-attack group allegedly associated with the United States intelligence organization NSA -- and dumped a bunch of its hacking tools (malware, private exploits, and hacking tools) online. I know, it is really hard to believe, but some cybersecurity experts who have been examining the leak data, exploits and hacking tools, believe it to be legitimate. Hacker Demands $568 Million in Bitcoin to Leak All Tools and Data Not just this, the hackers, calling themselves " The Shadow Brokers ," are also asking for 1 Million Bitcoins ( around $568 Million ) in an auction to release the 'best' cyber weapons and more files. Also Read:   Links Found between NSA, Regin Spy tool and QWERTY Keylogger Widely believed to be part of the NSA, Equati

WATCH: The SaaS Security Challenge in 90 Seconds

cyber security
websiteAdaptive ShieldSaaS Security / Cyber Threat
Discover how you can overcome the SaaS security challenge by securing your entire SaaS stack with SSPM.

'Hacking Team' Loses License to Sell Surveillance Malware Outside Europe

'Hacking Team' Loses License to Sell Surveillance Malware Outside Europe
Apr 07, 2016
Hacking Team – the infamous Italy-based spyware company that had more than 400 GB of its confidential data stolen last year – is facing another trouble.  This time not from other hackers, but from its own government. Hacking Team is infamous for selling surveillance spyware to governments and intelligence agencies worldwide, but now it may not be allowed to do so, as the Italian export authorities have revoked the company's license to sell outside of Europe. Almost a year after it was hacked and got all its secrets leaked online , Hacking Team somehow managed to resume its operations and start pitching new hacking tools to help the United States law enforcement gets around their encryption issues. Hacking Team had sold its malware, officially known as the Galileo Remote Control System , to authorities in Egypt, Morocco, Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Mexico, and Panama. Hacking Team had also signed big contracts with the Federal Burea

Hacking Team Offering Encryption Cracking Tools to Law Enforcement Agencies

Hacking Team Offering Encryption Cracking Tools to Law Enforcement Agencies
Oct 31, 2015
Hacking Team, the infamous Italy-based spyware company that had more than 400 GB of its confidential information stolen earlier this year, has resumed its operations and started pitching new hacking tools to help US law enforcement gets around their encryption issues . Yes, Hacking Team is back with a new set of Encryption Cracking Tools for government agencies as well as other customers to break encrypted communications. The announcement came in an email pitch sent to existing and potential new customers on October 19 when Hacking Team CEO David Vincenzetti confirmed that Hacking Team is now "finalizing [its] brand new and totally unprecedented cyber investigation solutions." The e-mail is not made public, but Motherboard has been able to obtain a copy of it that states: "Most [government agencies] in the United States and abroad will become 'blind,' they will 'go dark,' they will simply be unable to fight vicious phenomena such as te

These Top 7 Brutal Cyber Attacks Prove 'No One is Immune to Hacking' — Part I

These Top 7 Brutal Cyber Attacks Prove 'No One is Immune to Hacking' — Part I
Sep 08, 2015
If you believe that your organization is not at real risk of cyber attack, then you are absolutely wrong. Incidents of massive data breaches, advanced cyber attacks coming from China , groups like Syrian Electronic Army , Hacking Point of Sale machines at retailers such as Target have splashed across the news in the last one year. Whether a Government Agency or Private Company, Small or a Large Tech Company.... ...It's no secret that No one is Immune to Cyber Attacks . This article is the first in a two-part series from The Hacker News , listing first four out of  Top 7 Brutal Cyber Attacks. And here we go... #1 "Hacking Team" Data Breach Hacking Team , the controversial spyware company, recently been hacked by some unidentified hackers that exposed over 400 gigabytes of its internal sensitive data on the Internet. Milan (Italy) based IT firm 'Hacking Team' sells intrusion and surveillance software solutions to Governments and Law Enforcement agen

RCSAndroid — Advanced Android Hacking Tool Leaked Online

RCSAndroid — Advanced Android Hacking Tool Leaked Online
Jul 24, 2015
As digging deeper and deeper into the huge Hacking Team data dump , security researchers are finding more and more source code, including an advanced Android Hacking Tool. Yes, this time researchers have found a source code to a new piece of weaponized android malware that had the capability to infect millions of Android devices even when users are running latest versions of the android mobile operating system. Trend Micro researchers found that the Italian spyware company was selling RCSAndroid (Remote Control System Android) , which they says, is one of the "most professionally developed and sophisticated" pieces of Android malware a.k.a Android hacking tool they have ever seen. RCSAndroid is a sophisticated, real-world surveillance and hacking tool that provides even unskilled hackers to deploy one of the world's more advanced surveillance suites for Google's mobile operating system Android. List of Creepy Features of Android Hacking Tool

Hacking Team: We're Victim of a Criminal Cyber Attack

Hacking Team: We're Victim of a Criminal Cyber Attack
Jul 22, 2015
Hacking Team , the Italy-based spyware company that sells spying software to law enforcement agencies worldwide, says the company has always operated with the law and regulation in an ethical manner. However, there was only one Violation of Law in this entire event, and that is – " the massive cyber attack on the Hacking Team. " company stated. The recent hack on Hacking Team exposed nearly 500GB of massive internal documents including internal emails, hacking tools, zero-day exploits , surveillance tools, source code for Spyware and a spreadsheet listing every government client with date of purchase and amount paid. Hacking Team Hack and Media Reports: The attack on Hacking Team was really huge in every sense. The team finally shows its disappointment with media on its hacking incident saying, the company that helps government fight crimes is being treated as the culprits, and the criminals who attacked the company are not. " Had a media company

Hacking Team and Boeing Built Cyber Weaponized Drones to Spy on Targets

Hacking Team and Boeing Built Cyber Weaponized Drones to Spy on Targets
Jul 20, 2015
The leaked internal emails from the Italian surveillance software company Hacking Team have revealed that the spyware company developed a robotic aircraft designed to attack computers and smartphone devices through Wi-Fi networks. Over a year ago, some security researchers developed a drone called ' Snoopy ' that was capable to intercept data from users' Smartphones through spoofed wireless networks. Now, the email conversations posted on WikiLeaks website reveal that both Boeing and Hacking Team want unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS) called Drones to carry out attacks that inject spyware into target computers or mobile phones via WiFi. After attending the International Defense Exposition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi in February 2015, the U.S. drone company Boeing subsidiary Insitu become interested in using surveillance drones to deliver Hacking Team's Remote Control System Galileo for even more surveillance. Among the emails, co-founder Ma

How Hacking Team and FBI planned to Unmask A Tor User

How Hacking Team and FBI planned to Unmask A Tor User
Jul 15, 2015
The huge cache of internal files recently leaked from the controversial Italian surveillance software company Hacking Team has now revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) purchased surveillance software from the company. The leaked documents contains more than 1 Million internal emails, including emails from FBI agent who wanted to unmask the identity of a user of Tor , the encrypted anonymizing network widely used by activists to keep their identities safe, but also used to host criminal activities. Unmasking Tor User In September last year, an FBI agent asked Hacking Team if the latest version of its Remote Control System (RCS), also known as Galileo - for which the company is famous for, would be capable to reveal the True IP address of a Tor user. The FBI agent only had the proxy IP address of the target, as according to FBI, the target may be using Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) or some other variant. So, the agent wanted to infect the target

Hacking Team Spyware preloaded with UEFI BIOS Rootkit to Hide Itself

Hacking Team Spyware preloaded with UEFI BIOS Rootkit to Hide Itself
Jul 14, 2015
Last Week someone just hacked the infamous Hacking Team , The Italy-based cyber weapons manufacturer and leaked a huge trove of 400GB internal data , including: Emails Hacking tools Zero-day exploits Surveillance tools Source code for Spyware A spreadsheet listing every government client with date of purchase and amount paid Hacking Team is known for its advanced and sophisticated Remote Control System (RCS) spyware , also known as Galileo , which is loaded with lots of zero-day exploits and have ability to monitor the computers of its targets remotely. Today, Trend Micro security researchers found that the Hacking Team " uses a UEFI  (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)  BIOS Rootkit to keep their Remote Control System (RCS) agent installed in their targets' systems ." That clearly means, even if the user reinstalls the Operating System, formats the hard disk, and even buys a new hard disk, the agents are implanted after Microsoft Windows is

Hacking Team Flash Zero-Day Linked to Cyber Attacks on South Korea and Japan

Hacking Team Flash Zero-Day Linked to Cyber Attacks on South Korea and Japan
Jul 09, 2015
The corporate data leaked in the recent cyber attack on the infamous surveillance software firm Hacking Team has revealed that the Adobe Flash zero-day (CVE-2015-5119) exploit has already been added to several exploit kits. Security researchers at Trend Micro have discovered evidences of the Adobe Flash zero-day (CVE-2015-5119) exploit being used in a number of exploit kits before the vulnerability was publicly revealed in this week's data breach on the spyware company. The successful exploitation of the zero-day Flash vulnerability could cause a system crash, potentially allowing an attacker to take full control of the affected system. Adobe Flash Zero-Day Targeted Japan and Korea According to the researchers, the zero-day exploit, about which the rest of the world got access on Monday, was apparently used in limited cyber attacks on South Korea and Japan . "In late June, [Trend Micro] learned that a user in Korea was the attempted target of various

Zero-Day Flash Player Exploit Disclosed in 'Hacking Team' Data Dump

Zero-Day Flash Player Exploit Disclosed in 'Hacking Team' Data Dump
Jul 07, 2015
The Recent Cyber Attack that exposed 400GB of corporate data belonging to surveillance software firm Hacking Team has revealed that the spyware company have already discovered an exploit for an unpatched zero-day vulnerability in Flash Player. Security researchers at Trend Micro claim that the leaked data stolen from Hacking Team , an Italian company that sells surveillance software to government agencies, contains a number of unpatched and unreported Adobe flaws. Hacking Team has Unpatched Flash Bug  While analyzing the leaked data dump, researchers discovered at least three software exploits – two for Adobe Flash Player and one for Microsoft's Windows kernel. Out of two, one of the Flash Player vulnerabilities, known as Use-after-free vulnerability with CVE-2015-0349 , has already been patched. However, the Hacking Team described the other Flash Player exploit, which is a zero-day exploit with no CVE number yet, as "the most beautiful Flash bug for

'Hacking Team' Gets Hacked! 500GB of Data Dumped Over the Internet

'Hacking Team' Gets Hacked! 500GB of Data Dumped Over the Internet
Jul 06, 2015
Yes, sometimes even the Hackers get Hacked. Hacking Team , one of the most controversial spyware and malware providers to governments and law enforcement agencies all around the world, allegedly been hacked, with some 500 gigabytes of internal data leaked over the Internet . The leaked data indicates that despite its denials, the spyware company did sell powerful spyware tools to oppressive regimes in Sudan, Bahrain, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia . Massive Data Breach at Hacking Team The unknown hackers not only managed to make 500 GB of client files , financial documents, contracts and internal emails, publicly available for download, but also defaced Hacking Team's own Twitter account, replacing the company's logo to "Hacked Team." Hacking Team , also known as HT S.r.l, is an Italian company known for providing powerful surveillance software Remote Code System (RCS) to Governments and law enforcement agencies. The company previously claimed to o

Project Zero - A Team of Star-Hackers Hired by Google to Protect the Internet

Project Zero - A Team of Star-Hackers Hired by Google to Protect the Internet
Jul 15, 2014
Today Google has publicly revealed its new initiative called " Project Zero, " a team of Star Hackers and Bug Hunters with the sole mission to improve security and protect the Internet. A team of superheroes in sci-fi movies protect the world from Alien attack or bad actors, likewise  Project Zero is a dedicated team of top security researchers, who have been hired by Google to finding the most severe security flaws in software around the world and fixing them. PROTECT ZERO vs ZERO-DAY Project Zero gets its name from the term " zero-day ," and team will make sure that zero-day vulnerabilities don't let fall into the wrong hands of Criminals, State-sponsored hackers and Intelligence Agencies. " Yet in sophisticated attacks, we see the use of "zero-day" vulnerabilities to target, for example, human rights activists or to conduct industrial espionage. " Chris Evans said , who was leading Google's Chrome security team and now will lead Pro

Hacking Team sold Spyware to 21 Countries; Targeting Journalists and Human Right Activists

Hacking Team sold Spyware to 21 Countries; Targeting Journalists and Human Right Activists
Feb 24, 2014
Spying on the world by injecting sophisticated backdoors in software, systems, and mobile phones, leads to violation of the Privacy and Security of every individual. Yes, we are talking about Surveillance , but this time not about NSA . Instead, Countries including some with poor human-rights records and a much less technically advanced nation are the likely culprits, as they apparently used commercial spyware in making surveillance capabilities that once were the exclusive expertise of the known spy agencies, such as National Security Agency (NSA) and GCHQ. Citizen lab , a nonprofit research lab has  found traces of a remote hacking tool  in 21 countries , developed by  Hacking Team,  including Ethiopia, Sudan, Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia, which the team had already  denied  back in 2013. Hacking Team, also known as HT S.r.l , is an Italian company, which is known for its powerful surveillance software, Remote Code System (RCS) that it sells to Governments and law enforcement

Operation Troy espionage campaign : Hackers steal South Korean military secrets

Operation Troy espionage campaign : Hackers steal South Korean military secrets
Jul 09, 2013
McAfee Lab researchers issued a report on the large scale cyber attacks against South Korea that appear to be linked to hackers also specialized in cyber espionage . The attackers behind these recent attacks against South Korean infrastructure are skilled professionals and they designed a specialized malware to steal military secrets from the South Korea and US military networks. The cyber espionage campaign dubbed as " Operation Troy ", due the numerous references into the source code analyzed to the city. McAfee said that in 2009, malware was implanted into a social media website used by military personnel in South Korea Ryan Sherstobitoff, a senior threat researcher at McAfee, started the investigation after the malware came into action in an attacks occurred on March 20th, known as the Dark Seoul Incident , in which tens of thousands of hard drives belongs to television networks and banks in South Korea were wiped completely. Versions of the code
Cybersecurity Resources