The Hacking Team affair continues to cause discussion, after Wikileaks yesterday published the massive treasure trove of corporate emails stolen from the Italian company that makes spy software for governments and which was hit by a heavy hacker attack a few days ago, on July 6th. “There are more than a million messages,” Wikileaks explains on her site, recalling that Hacking Team has already been in their sights in the past with the SpyFiles: “These emails show the inside work of the controversial global surveillance firm.” The Italian company has acknowledged that the system, after the hack, is "out of control".
The spy story risks having serious consequences: there are in fact hundreds of names at stake, of politicians, from Matteo Renzi to Silvio Berlusconi, of institutions, from the secret services to the police, from the Guardia di Finanza to the Carabinieri, who recur in the internal emails of the Hacking Team company and disseminated online by Wikileaks. The name of the prime minister recurs several times - as well as that of Berlusconi and many other politicians - in a series of e-mails that report current political news, but also of the activities of the Italian judicial institutions, making it clear that confidential information also reached Hacking Team, such as, for example, rumors about the Constitutional Court ruling on pensions even before a real date was known.
In an email, Hacking Team CEO David Vincenzetti even fears the risk of a leak, warning the staff about the possibility of the company's sensitive information being disseminated online. “Imagine this: a Wikileaks leak showcasing and explaining our technology to the world. You will be demonized by our closest friends, activists around the world and ordinary people will point the finger at you." To say the least prophetic, even if the head of the Milanese company defends the product sold all over the world: “It is extremely effective, it was the first commercially available offensive security system in the world, first sold in 2004 to the Postal Police and immediately after to Spanish services. In Italy everyone uses it, absolutely everyone. Through RCS they have solved spectacular cases, front page stuff. Mafia bosses identified and arrested, assassins who hadn't been immediately located for years, the P4 disintegrated. Our tool is also used by the Gdf which investigates cases of corruption, political corruption".
Meanwhile, it has emerged that before the hackers targeted Hacking Team, and before WikiLeaks put around a million internal communications online, the Milanese spy company was at risk of ending up in bankruptcy. Last November the Ministry of Economic Development had in fact decided to apply what is defined for the company's products "catch-all clause", which provides for the possibility for the Authority to submit assets – in this case those of Hacking Team – to prior authorization before they can be sold abroad. If the ministry had followed up on the decision, there would have been problems for the Milanese company, which would not have been able to meet the delivery times of some of its main orders. If they failed, they risked bankruptcy. And to say it is a round of e-mails fished from those made public by WikiLeaks.
