An India-based computer hacking gang took control of the computers of Pakistani politicians, generals and diplomats and eavesdropped on their private conversations, apparently at the behest of Indian intelligence agencies, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported.
According to the report, many political goals seem to arise from the ongoing tension between Pakistan and India. On January 10, the gang was tasked with hacking the email account of Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry during Imran Khan’s government. It included a screenshot of Fawad Chaudhry’s inbox, which has been seen by the Sunday Times and the Bureau.
The hacking team used malware to take over the computers of the country’s senior generals, as well as its embassies in Beijing, Shanghai and Kathmandu. The most famous target related to Pakistan was the country’s former president Pervez Musharraf.
Private investigators linked to the City of London are also using India-based computer hacking gangs to target British businesses, government officials and journalists. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Sunday Times have been given access to the gang’s database, which reveals the extraordinary scale of the attacks.
It shows that criminals targeted the private email accounts of more than 100 victims on behalf of sovereign states, British lawyers and investigators working for their wealthy clients. Critics of Qatar who threatened to expose wrongdoing by the Gulf state during this month’s World Cup were among those hacked.
This is the first time that the inner workings of a major “Hack for Hire” gang have come to light in the media and have revealed a number of criminal conspiracies. Some of the hackers’ clients are private investigators employed by large law firms based in the City of London.
An investigation based on leaked documents and undercover work in India may reveal: Gang orders to target BBC political editor Chris Mason in May three weeks after his appointment was announced were released. Switzerland’s president and his deputy were targeted as they met Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in Downing Street to discuss Russian sanctions.
Philip Hammond, the chancellor at the time, was hacked while dealing with the fallout from Russia’s Novichok poisoning in Salisbury. A private investigator hired by a London law firm working for the Russian state orders the gang to target a British-born oligarch on the run from Vladimir Putin.
Former European football chief Michel Platini was hacked shortly before speaking to French police about corruption allegations surrounding the 2022 World Cup.
Hackers breached the email inboxes of Formula One motor racing bosses Ruth Buscombe, the British head of race strategy at the Alfa Romeo team, and Ottmar Zaffnauer, chief executive of the Aston Martin team.
Commissioning hacking is a criminal offense punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison in the UK. The Metropolitan Police was informed of the allegations regarding Qatar in October last year but took no action.
Former cabinet minister David Davis said the force should reopen investigations into possible criminal cyber attacks against British citizens.
Davies said the investigation revealed how London had become a “global hacking hub”.
“It paints a grim picture of the criminal hacking network that threatens justice and privacy here in the UK and around the world,” he added.
The hacking gang, which operates under the name Whiteint, is run from a fourth-floor apartment in the suburbs of the Indian tech city Gurugram. Its mastermind is 31-year-old Aditya Jain – an occasional TV cybersecurity pundit who also has a day job at the India office of British accountancy firm Deloitte.
For seven years, Jane has been running a network of computer hackers hired by British private detectives to steal their targets’ email inboxes using “phishing” techniques. Sometimes his team deploys malicious software that takes control of computer cameras and microphones, allowing them to see and hear their victims.
Earlier this year, undercover reporters from The Sunday Times traveled to India as corporate investigators trying to hire a computer hacker and make contact with a number of suspected cybercriminals. Reporters contacted Jain and began a lengthy exchange of messages.
Jane told them: “I offer access to POI (person of interest) e-mail and closed-source information on computers anywhere in the world … an average timeline is about 20 to 30 days.”
After that, he volunteered details about one of his projects related to FIFA, soccer’s governing body and the organizers of the World Cup.
“I have successfully worked to obtain the email data of a few high-profile UK-based individuals (regarding FIFA) at the behest of a Gulf-sponsored client,” he wrote.
In response to questions from undercover reporters, he confirmed that the ultimate client was Qatar. He said he was hired for the project by a Swiss-based investigator named Jonas Ray.
Secret databases detailing Jane’s clients and hacking targets were later seen by the Bureau and the Sunday Times. The list names seven clients and includes British private investigators.
Former Metropolitan Police officer Nick Del Russo appears to have provided the gang with at least 40 targets for cyber attacks.
Ray was the gang’s biggest customer. He was working for the Swiss corporate intelligence company Diligence Global Business Intelligence, which is owned and run by former MI5 officer Nick Day. The firm was a sister company of well-known City of London corporate intelligence firm Diligence.
In January 2019, Diligence Global was hired to work on the World Cup project, according to court documents. Over the next year Ray began commissioning the gang to target those who had exposed the wrongdoings of host Qatar.
Among those targeted was Jonathan Calvert, editor of the Sunday Times Insight Team who was at the forefront of exposing the corruption that led FIFA to award the World Cup to Qatar in 2010.
According to the database, Ray instructed Jane to target Calvert on April 22, 2019. A few weeks earlier, Insight wrote a story about the rules-violating $100 million “success fee” Qatar offered FIFA in exchange for the hosting rights. World Cup.
There is a note on the database stating that the hack of Calvert’s inbox was “complete”. Qatari government lawyers have denied commission hacking. Last month he accused Calvert of a “politically motivated crusade” linked to Qatar’s Gulf rival the United Arab Emirates when he was questioned about the hacking of his email account before the article.
“Your readers deserve to know that Mr. Calvert has maintained close ties with Qatar’s neighbor, the United Arab Emirates, for many years,” he wrote. There is no truth in the claim.
Ray also directed the gang to target Platini, a famous ex-footballer, on 10 May 2019. Platini was one of the members of FIFA’s executive committee who supported Qatar’s winning bid to host this year’s World Cup. He was rumored to have been pressured to do so during a lunch meeting with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, then a prince, from voting. A few days ago.
At the time Platini was hacked, France’s serious and economic crime enforcement unit, the Parquet Nationale Financier (PNF), prepared to speak to him about Lynch as part of an investigation into corruption in the World Cup bid. were
Sources close to the PNF investigation believe Qatar was “anxious” to find out what Platini was preparing to say when interviewed the following month. A representative for Platini said he was unaware he had been hacked but was concerned his private messages had been compromised.
Ray left Diligence Global in November of that year to set up his own firm, Athena Intelligence. By then his name had appeared against 16 hacks carried out by the gang. After leaving Diligence Global, he told Jane to target several more people, according to the database.
Jain hacked Ghanim Nasiba, a 45-year-old Mayfair-based businessman who became a target for Qatar after writing a report on corruption related to the 2022 World Cup. His London-based lawyer, Paul Tweed, was also hacked in November.
The hacker simultaneously targeted two other people who knew Naseeba. One was Mark Somos, a German-based lawyer who filed a complaint against the Qatari royal family at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The other was Nathalie Goulet, a French politician who has been critical of the Gulf state for funding terrorism. Jane even notes Goulet’s email password in the database, which she says was previously known only to her.
The hacker wrote a story in December 2019 shortly after Yann Philippe, a journalist at the French investigative website Mediapart, which provided fresh details about a French judicial investigation into the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar. Rey is listed as a client again. The hack failed because Filippin saw the phishing emails and switched his phone and computer.
