Italian Internet surveillance
company HackingTeam, which has lost command of its Remote
Control System (RCS), created the spy program in 2003 to help
governments control computers remotely and monitor the
information that passes through them.
The software, also known as Galileo, can target computers
even if they are not connected to the Internet. It can
infiltrate many operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS and
Linux, and smart phones such as Windows Phone, iPhone and
Blackberry.
"The gathering of evidence on these devices is invisible
and the transmission of data to the RCS servers is encrypted and
untraceable," the company says on its web site.
Based on internal HackingTeam documents published by
Wikileaks.org, the software is described as an aggressive system
that "allows security services to attack and control certain PCs
from afar," bypassing the encryption of communication tools such
as Skype.
The Italian company, which was attacked by hackers on July
6, has said sufficient code was released to permit anyone to
deploy the software against any target of their choice, and
described the situation as "extremely dangerous".
Internet criminals have reportedly already taken possession
of HackingTeam's technology to launch attacks, including some
exploiting a bug in the Adobe Flash Player software.
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