LONDON—A dramatic breach at an Italian surveillance company has laid bare the details of government cyberattacks worldwide, putting intelligence chiefs in the hot seat from Cyprus to South Korea. The massive leak has already led to one spymaster’s resignation—and pulled back the curtain on espionage in the iPhone age.
More than 1 million emails released online in the wake of the July 5 breach show that Hacking Team, also known as HT S.r.l., sold its spy software to the FBI and to Russian intelligence. It worked with authoritarian governments in the Middle East and pitched to police departments in the American suburbs. It even tried to sell to the Vatican—all while devising a malicious Bible app to infect religiously minded targets.
“It’s a mini-Snowden event,” said Israel-based security researcher Tal Be'ery, likening the impact of the leak to the publication of top secret NSA documents by former intelligence worker Edward Snowden.
