\n<\/p>\n
A Russian telecom company that develops technology to allow phone and internet companies to conduct web surveillance and censorship was hacked, had its website defaced, and had data stolen from its servers, TechCrunch has learned.<\/p>\n
Founded in Russia, Protei makes telecommunications systems for phone and internet providers across dozens of countries, including Bahrain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Pakistan and much of central Africa. The company, now headquartered in Jordan, sells video conferencing technology and internet connectivity solutions, as well as surveillance equipment and web-filtering products, such as deep packet inspection systems.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear exactly when or how Protei was hacked, but a copy of the company\u2019s website<\/a> saved on the Internet Archive\u2019s Wayback Machine shows it was defaced on November 8. The website was restored soon after.<\/p>\n During the breach, the hacker obtained the contents of Protei\u2019s web server \u2014 around 182 gigabytes of files \u2014 including emails dating back years.<\/p>\n A copy of Protei\u2019s data was provided to DDoSecrets<\/a>, a non-profit transparency collective that indexes leaked datasets in the public interest, including data from law enforcement, government agencies, and companies involved in the surveillance industry.<\/p>\n Mohammad Jalal, the managing director of Protei\u2019s branch in Jordan, did not respond to a request for comment about the breach.\u00a0<\/p>\n The identity of the hacker is not known, nor their motivations, but the defaced website read: \u201canother DPI\/SORM provider bites the dust.\u201d The message likely references the company\u2019s sales of deep packet inspection systems and other internet filtering technology for the Russian-developed lawful intercept system known as SORM<\/a>.<\/p>\n SORM is the main lawful intercept system used across Russia as well as several other countries<\/a> which use Russian technology. Phone and internet providers install SORM equipment on their networks, which allows their country\u2019s governments to obtain the contents of calls, text messages and web browsing data of the networks\u2019 customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Deep-packet inspection devices allow telecom companies to identify and filter web traffic depending on its source, such as a social media website or a specific messaging app, and selectively block access. These systems are used for surveillance and censorship in regions where freedom of speech and expression are limited.<\/p>\n