This article is more than 1 year old

Hacking Team's export authorisation hacked by Italian government

The ministry giveth, and the ministry taketh away

The Italian government has revoked the blanket export license that allowed Hacking Team to ship its surveillance tools around the world.

According to Italian outlet Il Fatto Quotidiano (here in Italian), the license decision applies to the company's Galileo spyware, formerly okayed for export to 46 countries.

Last year's Hacking Team hack revealed the company wanted to work with Boeing to put Galileo on unmanned aerial vehicles to inject spyware into public Wi-Fi networks.

The list included Khazakhstan and Egypt, Il Fatto Quotidiano writes, and the license was only granted in 2015 with an original expiry date of 2018.

Galileo can still be sold within the European Union without special license, but other sales will require permission on a country-by-country basis.

Il Fatto Quotidiano couldn't get the Ministry of of Economic Progress to explain the reason for pulling the company's blanket license, beyond saying it's no longer in the public interest.

Countries on the list were Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Etiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, India, Iraqi Kurdistan, Jordan, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Morocco, Mongolia, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Peru, the Philippines, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like