Leaked Documents Show FBI, DEA, & Army Can Control Your Computer
(ANTIMEDIA) Leaked emails from an Italian-based hacking company reveal that government agencies engage in surveillance
more invasive than previously thought, spending millions of dollars on
spyware and malware software to accomplish their questionable goals.
Tellingly, their use of the product places them squarely in the same
category as other repressive regimes around the world.
After hackers ironically hacked Hacking Team,
a Milan-based company that sells strictly to governments, hundreds of
gigabytes of emails and financial records were leaked. The emails show
that the FBI, DEA, and U.S. Army all purchased software that enables
them to view suspects’ photos, emails, listen to and record their
conversations, and activate the cameras on their computers, among other
things.
While this may seem like old news, the most controversial revelation
was the government’s purchases of “Remote Control Systems.” The FBI,
DEA, and U.S. Army, courtesy of Hacking Team, possess the capability to
take control of a suspect’s computer screen. The technology is so
invasive that even the DEA, known for its violative surveillance policies, had reservations about purchasing it.
According to documents obtained by The Intercept, an internal request to purchase RCS was denied by DEA management in 2011 because it was “too controversial.” By 2012,
however, the DEA had resolved its concerns, likely spending a similar
amount to the $773,226.64 (plus thousands in maintenance fees) the FBI invested in its own set of software.
Hacking Team was so committed to business with these American
agencies that it concocted codenames to refer to them. As The Intercept summarizes,
“Hacking Team refers to its U.S. clients by code names. The FBI unit is ‘Phoebe’…the DEA is ‘Katie,’ and the CIA, which appears to have sampled, but not bought Remote Control System, is ‘Marianne.’”
