A Toronto research lab has caused a lot of grief to an Italian spyware firm allegedly linked to oppressive regimes, leaked files suggest.

Emails show the firm Hacking Team was forced to suspend a client after a damning report from University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab (CL), a monitor of “political power in cyberspace.”

After another report by Citizen Lab, the firm’s executives were so agitated they wanted to “hit CL hard” through litigation, though they ultimately aborted that plan, according to the emails.

The emails’ release was the result of an ironic turn of events, in which Hacking Team, a peddler of software that grants unauthorized access to people’s computers, was itself hacked. More than 400 gigabytes of files — equivalent to 100,000 copies of all seven Harry Potter books — were set loose this month through the firm’s Twitter account.

The Star was not able to independently verify the authenticity of the files, which detailed the firm allegedly providing surveillance to countries with poor human rights records. The data corroborated what Citizen Lab — based at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs — has been reporting for years, embroiling Hacking Team in a storm of controversy.

Citizen Lab director, Ron Deibert, said it is “interesting” to find out his lab’s work — seven reports since 2012 — had had an impact on Hacking Team, but the contents of the leaked files were still “very discouraging.”

“Hacking Team is a symptom of a larger disease,” he said in an interview.

In March, Deibert, sent an open letter to Hacking Team. The letter accompanied a fresh report on Hacking Team allegedly selling its technology to Ethiopia, which was said to have used it to spy on journalists.

According to leaked files, CEO David Vincenzetti forwarded it to senior members, writing, “It’s from our dearest friends at the U of Toronto.”

In the email chain, an operations manager wrote about the “dire consequences” that can be caused by “this kind of attention.”

Later correspondences confirmed the country was dropped due to Citizen Lab’s report, but not because of the allegedly unethical spying; it was cut due to its “incompetent use” of the product that caused it to get caught, according to the emails.

But according to leaked emails, the firm offered to reinstate Ethiopia about two months later, with strict conditions and a bigger bill.

Hacking Team spokesman Eric Rabe told the Star the firm will not speak to the validity of the leaked files, though he said the emails were “part of the discussion.”

He said the firm was unable to verify Citizen Lab’s “suspicions,” though it still suspended Ethiopia.

“There (were subsequently) many ideas about whether there was some way to control the client and still provide services,” Rabe explained in an email, but added Ethiopia was ultimately not reinstated.

Deibert said nobody replied to his letter.

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Vincenzetti said in a statement Hacking Team sells only to government agencies, which use the software for fighting crime.

The leaked emails revealed plans for retaliation last year against Citizen Lab after a report appeared to have gone too far in the eyes of Hacking Team.

“Question is: can we sue them?” Vincenzetti said in an email dated June 24, 2014, after the lab published an insider’s look into the firm’s technology through anonymously obtained files.

In the email chain, Rabe questioned the effectiveness of a lawsuit, but Eric Kuhn, the firm’s lawyer, was more bullish, replying with nearly 1,000 words, recommending litigation.

Kuhn wrote in the emails choosing to “not go after” Citizen Labs would set a bad precedent and that the firm needs to find the Toronto lab’s source so it can plug the leak.

“By way of example, did an... employee provide CL with the information?” he wrote, “If so, that person needs to be fired and sued.”

But on June 30, the lawsuit was called off after executives deemed taking the matter to court will bring only “greater and wider exposure,” according to the emails.

Rabe told the Star the lawsuit was an “emotional response” and never executed.

He added Hacking Team (HT) is a legitimate company, operating within the law, and has been unfairly targeted by Citizen Lab.

“CL has spent a good deal of effort to undermine the technology of HT and expose it thereby rendering it less valuable,” he said.

Deibert said the lab is a research institute whose studies are objective and peer-reviewed and would not fear litigation even if it comes.