Khanate
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2016
- Messages
- 2,926
- Reaction score
- 7
- Country
- Location
The hacking gang, which operates under the name WhiteInt, is run from a fourth-floor apartment in a suburb of the Indian tech city Gurugram. Its mastermind is 31-year-old Aditya Jain – an occasional TV cybersecurity pundit who also holds down a day job at the Indian office of the British accountancy firm Deloitte.
For seven years, Jain has run a network of computer hackers who have been hired by British private detectives to steal the email inboxes of their targets using “phishing” techniques. Sometimes his team deploy malicious software which takes control of computer cameras and microphones, and allows them to view and listen to their victims.
Earlier this year undercover reporters from the Sunday Times travelled to India posing as corporate investigators seeking to hire a computer hacker and approached a number of suspected cybercriminals. The reporters contacted Jain and began a lengthy exchange of messages.
Jain told them: “I offer access to closed source information of email and computers of the POI [person of interest] anywhere across the globe … an average timeline is around 20 to 30 days.”
Several of Jain’s political targets seem to have arisen from the continued tensions between India and Pakistan.
On 10 January this year he was tasked with breaking into the email account of Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s then minister of information in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government. Jain took a screenshot of Chaudhry’s inbox, which has been seen by this newspaper and the Bureau.
Jain’s team used malware to take over his computers and targeted the country's senior generals as well as its embassies in Beijing, Shanghai and Kathmandu in a similar way. The most famous Pakistan-related target was Pervez Musharraf, the former president of the country.
Other targets:
The Bureau Investigates
For seven years, Jain has run a network of computer hackers who have been hired by British private detectives to steal the email inboxes of their targets using “phishing” techniques. Sometimes his team deploy malicious software which takes control of computer cameras and microphones, and allows them to view and listen to their victims.
Earlier this year undercover reporters from the Sunday Times travelled to India posing as corporate investigators seeking to hire a computer hacker and approached a number of suspected cybercriminals. The reporters contacted Jain and began a lengthy exchange of messages.
Jain told them: “I offer access to closed source information of email and computers of the POI [person of interest] anywhere across the globe … an average timeline is around 20 to 30 days.”
Several of Jain’s political targets seem to have arisen from the continued tensions between India and Pakistan.
On 10 January this year he was tasked with breaking into the email account of Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s then minister of information in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government. Jain took a screenshot of Chaudhry’s inbox, which has been seen by this newspaper and the Bureau.
Jain’s team used malware to take over his computers and targeted the country's senior generals as well as its embassies in Beijing, Shanghai and Kathmandu in a similar way. The most famous Pakistan-related target was Pervez Musharraf, the former president of the country.
Other targets:
- Orders went out to the gang to target the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason in May, three weeks after his appointment was announced.
- The president of Switzerland and his deputy were targeted just days after he met Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in Downing Street to discuss Russian sanctions.
- Philip Hammond, then chancellor, was hacked as he was dealing with the fallout of Russia’s novichok poisonings in Salisbury.
- A private investigator hired by a London law firm acting for the Russian state ordered the gang to target a British-based oligarch fleeing Vladimir Putin.
- Michel Platini, the former head of European football, was hacked shortly before he was due to talk to French police about corruption allegations relating to the 2022 World Cup.
- The hackers broke into the email inboxes of Formula One motor racing bosses Ruth Buscombe, the British head of race strategy at the Alfa Romeo team, and Otmar Szafnauer, who was chief executive of the Aston Martin team.
- The gang seized control of computers owned by Pakistan’s politicians, generals and diplomats and eavesdropped on their private conversations, apparently at the behest of the Indian secret services.
The Bureau Investigates
