It appears that the 400-GB data breach on Hacking Team is not the only way the elusive group's operations and products have been exposed. The Ethiopian government has been using the organization's wares to spy on its journalists who are based on the United States.
Ethiopia's transactions with Hacking Team has been found out, and written about, in a Citizen Lab report published March this year. Ethiopia has been shown to abuse the spyware, using it to limit press freedom, almost to the point of abolishing it. The tool the regime has reportedly acquired from Hacking Team is designed to find sources of news about the country. The Ethiopian government is unfriendly and repressive of its press and media people.
The Citizen Lab report in March is not the only time the government's hack has been exposed. In February last year, Ethiopian journalists pieced together an investigative report on Ethiopia's business relations with Hacking Team. The report described the regime's abuse of the available tools, harming its press. It made waves in the United States.
After the March exposure, Hacking Team was said to have cut off Ethiopia from its list of clients. The country has attempted to renew its contract with the organization. The email cache between the two parties is now posted on WikiLeaks.
"The issue is their incompetent use of [HackingTeam] tools," wrote Hacking Team communications chief Eric Rabe, in the leaked emails. "They can argue about whether their target was a justified target or not, but their use of the tool several times from the same email address, and in repeatedly targeting and failing to get access is what caused the exposure of our technology."
Apart from Ethiopia, Sudan has also been found to be a client of Hacking Team. The organization has a policy of not naming its clients, but in Ethiopia's case, the client has named itself. The authenticity of all the data acquired from the breach has been denied by Hacking Team. The leaked files all confirm rumors previously denied by the organization, especially those about catering to oppressive regimes.
The Ethiopian government has not released any comment regarding the issue. After the incidents of exposing itself as a notorious surveillence service provider's client, analysts say that the organization may still wind up catering to the country, Washington Post reported. The leak has not shown this.
Seeing how Hacking Team would not have been found out if not for a hack and its own client's fault, it may not be easy to tell.
