'NIS bought spyware from Italian company'

By Kim Hyo-jin

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) is suspected of buying spying software from an Italian firm.

An unknown group on Sunday broke into the system of Hacking Team, an Italian company selling surveillance tools, and released files showing its transaction records on the Internet.

The leaked data revealed South Korea’s “5163 Army Division” was among its foreign clients. The country has no such Army division. The name has reportedly been used by the spy agency to disguise itself for operations overseas.

The data showed that the 5163 Army Division purchased spyware called the Remote Control System (RCS) from Hacking Team in January 2012, and paid maintenance costs twice a year afterwards until January. The total payment reaches 860 million won ($760,000).

A mailing address Seocho P.O. Box 200 appeared on the contract. It matches the address of the NIS civil service department.

The NIS refused to confirm whether it purchased the software from the hacked company. An NIS official who wished to remain anonymous said, “The agency no longer uses the code name 5163 Army Division.”

The spy software RCS is able to trace phone conversations and monitor emails and mobile messengers. It also allows identification of the targets’ location and remotely activates microphones and cameras on their computer, according to an advert showing on the Hacking Team’s website.

Hacking Team has been selling its products to governments that spy on its citizens. Hackers unveiled its clients’ location on BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing program over the weekend, which include countries like Ethiopia, which Human Rights Watch named as having suppressed political dissidents prior to elections in May.

Others include the United States, Russia, Germany, Australia, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Singapore, Thailand, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan, Mexico, Panama, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.