Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
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SIO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The prosecutor’s office in Naples also did not respond to an email seeking comment. A Cy4gate spokesperson shared a statement previously posted on Twitter, where the company said that its products "have very high quality standards." "In the case of the reported malfunctions, the company immediately tasked a team to work in collaboration with the customers. Moreover, we want to note that, in this particular case, the company readily found and scrupulously analyzed the specific situation," the statement read. "The aforementioned product it’s only used by government authorities, fully respecting the pertinent laws."Law enforcement authorities in Italy, especially in cases involving organized crime, rely heavily on wiretaps and spyware that can be installed on targets' phones. This has made Italy one of the biggest markets for so-called lawful interception technologies in the last few years. First, there was Hacking Team, then Negg, eSurv, and now Cy4gate. But this is not the first time that authorities find problems with their surveillance providers. In 2019, after Motherboard revealed that another spyware maker had published several malicious apps on the Google Play Store, potentially putting several innocent people under surveillance, authorities put the company under investigation. That investigation is still ongoing. Subscribe to our cybersecurity podcast CYBER, here.Do you have information about this case or other companies that provide spyware to governments? We’d love to hear from you. You can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, Wire/Wickr @lorenzofb, or email lorenzofb@vice.com.