A Russian telecom firm that develops know-how to permit telephone and web firms to conduct internet surveillance and censorship was hacked, had its web site defaced, and had knowledge stolen from its servers, information.killnetswitch has discovered.
Based in Russia, Protei makes telecommunications techniques for telephone and web suppliers throughout dozens of nations, together with Bahrain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Pakistan and far of central Africa. The corporate, now headquartered in Jordan, sells video conferencing know-how and web connectivity options, in addition to surveillance tools and web-filtering merchandise, resembling deep packet inspection techniques.
It’s not clear precisely when or how Protei was hacked, however a duplicate of the corporate’s web site saved on the Web Archive’s Wayback Machine exhibits it was defaced on November 8. The web site was restored quickly after.
Through the breach, the hacker obtained the contents of Protei’s internet server — round 182 gigabytes of information — together with emails courting again years.
A duplicate of Protei’s knowledge was supplied to DDoSecrets, a nonprofit transparency collective that indexes leaked datasets within the public curiosity, together with knowledge from regulation enforcement, authorities companies, and corporations concerned within the surveillance trade.
Mohammad Jalal, the managing director of Protei’s department in Jordan, didn’t reply to a request for remark concerning the breach.
The id of the hacker just isn’t recognized, nor their motivations, however the defaced web site learn: “one other DPI/SORM supplier bites the mud.” The message seemingly references the corporate’s gross sales of deep packet inspection techniques and different web filtering know-how for the Russian-developed lawful intercept system often called SORM.
SORM is the primary lawful intercept system used throughout Russia in addition to a number of different nations that use Russian know-how. Cellphone and web suppliers set up SORM tools on their networks, which permits their nation’s governments to acquire the contents of calls, textual content messages, and internet searching knowledge of the networks’ prospects.
Deep-packet inspection gadgets permit telecom firms to establish and filter internet site visitors relying on its supply, resembling a social media web site or a selected messaging app, and selectively block entry. These techniques are used for surveillance and censorship in areas the place freedom of speech and expression are restricted.
The Citizen Lab reported in 2023 that Iranian telecoms big Ariantel had consulted with Protei about know-how for logging web site visitors and blocking entry to sure web sites. Paperwork seen and revealed by The Citizen Lab present that Protei touted its know-how’s capability to limit or block entry to web sites for particular individuals or whole swathes of the inhabitants.
