HackingTeam is a consultancy that sells tools and services only to agencies of government. They are one of the companies named by Wikileaks and implicated in selling tools to countries who use them to gather evidence on democracy protesters. I am not suggesting the servers are used for this purpose by an NZ government agency today.
Seven command servers operating HackingTeam software have been located in New Zealand.
From here there are several possibilities. The servers are:
1. Operated here without the knowledge of our government by some other government
2. Operating here with the knowledge of our government
3. Operated by one or more NZ government agencies for lawful purposes
4. Operated by one or more NZ government agencies for unlawful purposes
5. Operated by HackingTeam and hired to any government who wishes to target people in NZ.
Kaspersky Labs identified the command servers and published MD5s of the 'infector' software for Windows, Android, Blackberry, and iOS. The iOS infector requires a jailbreak to take effect.
In the unlikely event our government is operating all seven and lawfully - at the very least they should stop buying from and therefore financially supporting a company that supplies to regimes who suppress protest.
What is your opinion on the presence, purpose and ownership of the HackingTeam servers in NZ?
