How Government Can Activate Your Cameras, Record Audio From Your Phone Or Skype Conversation

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Written by: Tiobe

 

Now that you know the extent to which government agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA) collect your phone and Internet data, thanks largely to the efforts and bravery of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, you may or may not have learned about protecting that data via encryption.

Unfortunately, even if you have taken steps to encrypt your data, now that effort may be negligible; Italian company Hacking Team has created software called Remote Control System, software it claims can “defeat encryption.”

The Intercept published the manuals for Remote Control System, detailing how government employees can infect a device, steal passwords, activate cameras, export emails, and record audio from phone or Skype calls, without leaving the typical traces, using proxy servers to hide its trail.

It is essentially malware that can be installed via USB stick in-person, via email/phishing scam or as a tag-along with standard software installation. It can also use wi-fi hot spots. Remote Control System costs users between 200,000 to one million Euros.

Hacking Team sells Remote Control System exclusively to governments. Hacking Team clients reportedly include: Azerbaijan, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

Nine of these nations are listed as “authoritarian” in The Economist’s 2012 Democracy Index.

To date, Remote Control System has been used to target Ethiopian journalists in Washington DC, in Morocco against media company Mafakinch and against human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor in the United Arab Emirates.

“We sell Remote Control System to institutions in more than 40 countries on five continents; all of Europe, but also the Middle East, Asia and United States of America,” said Hacking Team CEO and co-founder David Vincenzetti in a 2011 l’Espresso interview.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Vincenzetti attacked the authors of The Intercept piece on Hacking Team’s Remote Control System.

“Instead of a balanced look at a complex subject, this article is the familiar perspective of activists such as Morgan Marquis-Boire, one of its authors. The writers seem astonishingly unconcerned about, or naively unaware of the criminal and terrorist uses of secret communications over mobile devices and the Web. In this case, they go so far as to begin by mocking the concerns of even the most respected law enforcement organizations… The manuals published by The Intercept appear to be stolen documents and are clearly out of date,” said Vincenzetti in his response letter to The Intercept. “Rational thinkers would agree that there is a proper balance between the right to privacy and society’s need to be protected from crime and terrorism.”

No word yet on how team privacy will respond to Vincenzetti’s software.

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Sources:

https://citizenlab.org/2014/02/mapping-hacking-teams-untraceable-spyware/

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/30/hacking-team/

 

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13 COMMENTS

  1. It would be wonderful if someone could create a virus which would attack software/virus’ like this and call it the innoculator which would cause the virus to reverse itself and feed on the original source

  2. This website is going way so wrong..
    There is a section called “Cyber security training” that takes you to a “hair salon” or an online shop that got nothing to do with the article, site, cyber security, or even training for anything.
    I believe that anonymous is a “non-profit organization” and not a “scamming” one as well.
    So whoever is the chef of this site be more “honest” when you upload something or create a section so people cant keep trusting you.
    Since this website is officially the front face of the “Anonymous” it should be better so people can believe in Anonymous and support them.
    Regards..

    • this web site is not officially the face of Anonymous. thats the concept people have a tough time getting their head around. Anonymous is everything and nothing.

      Just an observation. In any case, your support and desire to express your opinion is critical. piece.

  3. *****I NEED YOUR HELP…FELLOW ANON’S*********

    I had this RCS on my system..I have now got a new hard drive and I am super careful what I DL’. Not that I wasn’t careful before. Any ideas how to prevent this shit from getting back on my system?? I have Win 7 64bit, Avast int’ security and advanced system care pro..they didn’t stop it at all or find it!
    I found the above and Finspy Finfisher on my system along with other lower level trojans with the thanks going to DETEKT…none of these programs was any use at all. I now run DETEKT often to make sure my PC is clean..but formatting the HD is getting very boring!
    Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

    Zapata.

  4. Anonymous I am asking you for help.I wish to hack on my android and need tools to do so with out rooting if anyome has apps that do so let me know.

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