Italian police investigate six Hacking Team employees after previous accusations over the leaking of company secrets

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Italian police are investigating whether the attack on cyber-espionage firm Hacking Team, which exposed its dealings with repressive regimes and flaws in user software, could have been an inside job.



Investigative sources told Reuters they were considering the possibility that six former employees could be responsible for the attack on the company, which saw 400GB of private data dumped on the internet.

Reuters reported that the six suspects had already been placed under investigation in a separate case for allegedly revealing the company’s industrial secrets, after a complaint by the Hacking Team chief executive, David Vincenzetti, over the leaking of source code for programs, which was also exposed as part of the data dumped on the internet.

Vincenzetti has previously said a government might have been behind the hacking of the company’s systems.

Hacking Team made software used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, to hack into and spy on the smartphones and computers of suspects.

The company’s email archive was also exposed in the data theft revealing deals with repressive regimes and countries criticised over their human rights records.

The latest reports indicate Hacking Team had developed a system that could remotely hack companies, governments and individuals via wifi carried into range by a drone.

• Hacking Team hack casts spotlight on murky world of state surveillance