November 6, 2022
Source: Mint
Photo Source: Unsplash, Azmat E.
Illegal hacking operatives, also known as “hack-for-hire" companies, are operating across India. They infiltrate emails and phones of VIPs and states for a fee paid by private investigators around the world, an undercover investigation has claimed on Sunday. ‘The Sunday Times’ and Bureau of Investigative Journalism conducted a sting operation to expose several Indian hackers offering their services to hack into private email accounts and messages of victims on behalf of investigators working for autocratic states, British lawyers and their wealthy clients. According to the investigation based on leaked documents and undercover work in India earlier this year, journalists posing as former MI6 agents turned private investigators claim that one such gang took control of computers of Pakistan's politicians, generals and diplomats It said, "Seized control of computers" owned by Pakistan's politicians, generals and diplomats and eavesdropped on their private conversations “apparently at the behest of the Indian secret services".
The hacking gang, which operates under the name WhiteInt, is run from a fourth-floor apartment in a suburb of the tech city Gurugram in Haryana. Its mastermind is a 31-year-old man — an occasional TV cybersecurity pundit who also holds down a day job at the Indian office of a British accountancy firm, according to the ‘Sunday Times’ report.
For seven years, he has run a network of computer hackers who have been hired by British private detectives to steal the email inboxes of their targets using ‘phishing’ techniques, it claims.
Malicious software which takes control of computer cameras and microphones, and allows hackers to view and listen to their victims are some of the methods used in such hack-for-hire operations, which earns hackers anywhere between USD 3,000 and 20,000.
"I offer access to closed source information of email and computers of the PoI [person of interest] anywhere across the globe... an average timeline is around 20 to 30 days," he was quoted as telling the undercover journalists.
How can such practices impact your health? How? Why?
Share the wealth of health with your family and friends by sharing this article with 3 people today.
If this article was helpful to you, donate to the Shidonna Raven Garden and Cook E-Magazine Today. Thank you in advance.