New Delhi-based BellTroX InfoTech Services targeted government officials in Europe, gambling tycoons in the Bahamas, and well-known investors in the United States including private equity giant KKR and short seller Muddy Waters, according to three former employees, outside researchers, and a trail of online evidence.
BellTroX’s Gupta (a surname familiar to all South Africans) was charged in a 2015 hacking case in which two U.S. private investigators admitted to paying him to hack the accounts of marketing executives. Gupta was declared a fugitive in 2017, although the U.S. Justice Department declined to comment on the current status of the case or whether an extradition request had been issued.
The issue for me is not so much that there is hacking going on, but rather who made use of these illegal services. It means groups with money within these countries resorted to illegal means to try bring down their opposition. That is not ethical in itself.
See Exclusive: Obscure Indian cyber firm spied on politicians, investors worldwide
A little-known Indian IT firm offered its hacking services to help clients spy on more than 10,000 email accounts over a period of seven years.