The founder of notorious and now-defunct spyware maker Hacking Team was arrested Saturday after allegedly stabbing and attempting to kill a relative, according multiple News References.
David Vincenzetti, who started Hacking Team in 2003, was arrested when police showed up at his apartment after his cousin called the police, local media reported, because he couldn’t reach his wife on the phone. According to the Italian newspaper Il Giorno, the woman was visiting Vincenzetti, who reportedly had psychological problems, to take care of him. Vincenzetti allegedly stabbed the woman and police found her unconscious.
When Vincenzetti appeared before the judge, he did not talk about the incident, but rather talked about his work and companies, prompting the judge to order prosecutors to examine his mental state. according to La Stampa. The judge also ordered the man to remain in prison as a precautionary measure, the newspaper said.
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When reached by phone, an operator at the San Vittore prison in Milan, where Vincenzetti is reportedly being held, said they could not confirm whether Vincenzetti was an inmate or allow TechCrunch to speak to any inmates.
Vincenzetti has been out of the limelight since 2020, when he stated on his LinkedIn account that Hacking Team was “dead”. A year earlier, Vincenzetti had sold the company, which had been renamed Memento Labs.
Hacking Team was one of the first companies to develop and sell spyware to governments. initially in Italy and later around the world. At its peak, Hacking Team had about 40 government clients, including in Spain, Hungary, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Colombia, Ecuador, South Korea and Malaysia.
After years of flying under the radar, security researchers have found that customers like it MoroccoThe United Arab Emiratesand Ethiopia had used Hacking Team’s tools to target and hack journalists and dissidents. The company has always defended itself, saying it only sold to governments it could legally sell to and that it wasn’t responsible for what customers did with their tools.
In 2015, a mysterious vigilante hacker known as “Phineas Fisher” hacked the Hacking Group and leaked thousands of internal company emails and—most notably—spyware source code. The devastating breach prompted key developers to leave the company and forced the company to ask customers to temporarily stop using its products. Little by little, Hacking Team began to lose customers, tried to rebrand, sold some of its stake to Saudi investors, and was finally sold to new management.
