Hacking Team may only supply government spy software in the EU

Hacking Team, the Italian company that develops spy software for governments, is no longer allowed to supply its products to countries outside the EU. Italy’s Ministry of Economy has withdrawn the permit early.

The MISE, the ministry for economic development, has withdrawn the permit, a spokesperson for the ministry confirms to the American business magazine Forbes: “Hacking Team still has permission for all countries within the EU.” The spokesperson says he expects the company to be allowed to resume sales for other countries as well.

The license was supposed to remain in effect until April 30, 2018, but a ministry advisory committee is said to have decided to revoke it “due to the changed political situation” in some countries to which exports were allowed. That writes the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano on Wednesday. It would mainly concern Egypt. Relations between Italy and Egypt have deteriorated after an Italian student was killed in the African country and the investigation into the case raised numerous questions about government involvement.

That newspaper published a list of 46 countries to which Hacking Team was allowed to deliver without further permission, but not anymore. That list includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Morocco and the US. According to the Italian newspaper, the unrest in countries such as Egypt played a role in the decision to withdraw the permit. The exact reason for the revocation of the license is unknown.

Hacking Team is a controversial company that develops hacking tools, for example to secretly monitor systems remotely. The company itself was hacked last year, stealing 400GB of information from its servers, including the source code of the Remote Control System. The released data showed that Hacking Team supplied to numerous governments.

The CEO of the company from Milan, David Vincenzetti, is the subject of an investigation into the agreements his team has made abroad. According to Hacking Team, those agreements complied with the laws of the countries where they were concluded at the time. Hacking Team started work again after the hack and appeared to have released new tools and found government customers.