Bayelsa state governor hires world most ruthless hackers for #100m to hack computers

The Bayelsa state government paid close to one
hundred million naira to an Italian firm,
Hacking Team, to hack computers and phones in
Nigeria, new information emerging from the
firm’s leaked


internal data has shown.
Hacking Team, notorious for equipping
governments with tools to hack citizens’
computers and phones, was itself hacked
Sunday night and 415 gigabyte of internal data
leaked to the public.
Researchers have been pouring through the
leaked documents since it was first leaked
Sunday night, throwing up many shocking
details of the firm’s secret dealings with
Bayelsa state and other repressive
governments, including Sudan, Russia, and
Bahrain.
Documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES show that
the Bayelsa government, a small state in
Nigeria’s oil rich Niger Delta, paid Hacking Team
N98 million to carry out internet attacks, in
what appears to be the most ambitious hacking
project by a Nigerian state government.
The contract was signed in late 2013, Hacking
Team’s internal documents, leaked after the
Sunday night hack attack on the company,
show.
Details of the extent of the attacks Hacking
Team carried out on behalf of the state is not
clear at the moment.
The contract with the Bayelsa government is
classed “intelligence ” – the same class with
contracts the firm unlawfully held with Russia
and Sudan.
The cost of Bayelsa government’s contract
with the firm is equivalent to what the Russian
government recently paid the firm for
maintenance of its Remote Control System. And
worth more than what Turkey, Columbia and
Bahrain paid to the firm.
Hacking Team, now learning how it feels to
have one’s privacy breached, is notorious for
developing intrusive softwares for state
clients who use them to hack citizen’s
computers and smartphones. Hacking Team’s
twitter account was hacked and used to
announce the hack.
The firm claims its intrusion softwares –
Remote Control Systems – are the most
invasive and ruthless, with ability to
compromise most operating systems, except
iOS – but including jail-broken iOS.
In one video commercial, it boasted that its
software could hack offline and encrypted
computers and smartphones, even if the target
was outside the government’s “monitoring
domain”.
Hacking Team’s Remote Control Systems are
more dangerous and intrusive than the WISE
technology the Nigerian government bought
from Israeli company, Elbit in 2013.
While WISE depended on transmitted data such
as voice calls, social media postings, and
number plates, Hacking Team specialized in
software that had full capabilities to hack,
compromise your gadget and silently steal
stored data like SMS, Whatsapp messages, call
records, and photos.
Galileo, one of the company’s most evil
softwares, is also able to secretly take
snapshots and record conversations of its
victims.
Hacking Team is loathed by digital activists and
freedom of expression advocates all over the
world for helping oppressive regimes abuses
citizens’ right to privacy and freedom of
speech.
Reporters Without Borders listed the firm on
its Enemies of the Internet index due to its
primary surveillance tool, Da Vinci.
Few weeks ago, co-founder David Vincenzetti
joked in emails about how bad a leak would be
for Hacking Team. In one of the leaked internal
emails, he described the firm’s product as the
“evilest” technology ever developed on earth.
The hacking software is originally designed as a
country-wide attack tool.
The intentions of the Bayelsa state
government in purchasing the software is
unclear at this time.
As at the time the Bayelsa state government
acquired the software, the state was not
known to be under any external cyber
aggression.
But it’s governor, Seriake Dickson, was
persecuting a citizen over critical Facebook
comments.
It was also in the run-up to the 2015 general
elections.
During the same period, PREMIUM TIMES and
few other Nigerian news organisations believed
to be critical of the former regime, led by
Goodluck Jonathan, suffered several cyber
attacks.
Mr. Jonathan is from Bayelsa state and
enjoyed absolute loyalty from Mr. Dickson at
the time.
Hacking Team did not sell its software directly
to the Bayelsa state government. The
transaction was channeled through an Israeli
company, NICE, and then V&V Nigeria.
V&V, also Israeli-owned, is known to have
close relationship with former Bayelsa state
governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.
V&V is responsible for the supply of many
government hacking tools in Nigeria.
PREMIUM TIMES had earlier this year
exclusively reported how V&V won a N6 billion
contract, back in 2010, for a N6 billion
strategic GSM Tracking System for the Nigeria
Police Force and expansion/upgrade of the
existing system with Nigeria’s secret police,
the State Security Service.
The Bayelsa Governor could not be reached to
comment for this story.
His spokesperson, Daniel Iworiso-Markson did
not answer or return calls seeking comment.
He is also yet to respond to a text message
sent to him. And so also is Dan Kikile, the state
commissioner for information.