A small-time cyber company, based out of New Delhi in India has been offering its hacking services to spy on key people including investors in the US, gambling tycoons in the Bahamas and even government officials in Europe.
The shocking list of those being spied on includes short-seller Muddy Waters and equity investment major KKR among many others.
The spying has been reportedly going on since 2013. The owner of BellTroX InfoTech Services, Sumit Gupta, declined to name their clients and denied any wrongdoings. People familiar with the matter said that the issue is under investigation by the U.S Law Enforcement though no comments were offered by the US Department of Justice.
Muddy Waters founder Carson Block said he was “disappointed, but not surprised, to learn that we were likely targeted for hacking by a client of BellTroX.” KKR did not provide any comments.
A report was released by Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group regarding the spying based on their mapping over the past two years. They are confident that BellTroX employees were behind the espionage campaign.
“This is one of the largest spy-for-hire operations ever exposed and our investigation found that no sector is immune,” said Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton. Data confirms that many emails were sent to the target by BellTroX trying to trick them into giving up information for the last 7 years.
