A Russian telecom firm that develops know-how to permit cellphone and web firms to conduct net surveillance and censorship was hacked, had its web site defaced, and had information stolen from its servers, TechCrunch has realized.

Based in Russia, Protei makes telecommunications techniques for cellphone and web suppliers throughout dozens of nations, together with Bahrain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Pakistan and far of central Africa. The corporate, now headquartered in Jordan, sells video conferencing know-how and web connectivity options, in addition to surveillance tools and web-filtering merchandise, corresponding to deep packet inspection techniques.

It’s not clear precisely when or how Protei was hacked, however a copy of the corporate’s web site saved on the Web Archive’s Wayback Machine exhibits it was defaced on November 8. The web site was restored quickly after.

In the course of the breach, the hacker obtained the contents of Protei’s net server — round 182 gigabytes of information — together with emails relationship again years.

A replica of Protei’s information was offered to DDoSecrets, a non-profit transparency collective that indexes leaked datasets within the public curiosity, together with information from regulation enforcement, authorities companies, and corporations concerned within the surveillance trade.

Mohammad Jalal, the managing director of Protei’s department in Jordan, didn’t reply to a request for remark concerning the breach. 

The identification of the hacker will not be recognized, nor their motivations, however the defaced web site learn: “one other DPI/SORM supplier bites the mud.” The message possible references the corporate’s gross sales of deep packet inspection techniques and different web filtering know-how for the Russian-developed lawful intercept system often known as SORM.

SORM is the primary lawful intercept system used throughout Russia in addition to a number of different nations which use Russian know-how. Telephone and web suppliers set up SORM tools on their networks, which permits their nation’s governments to acquire the contents of calls, textual content messages and net shopping information of the networks’ clients. 

Deep-packet inspection units enable telecom firms to establish and filter net site visitors relying on its supply, corresponding to a social media web site or a selected messaging app, and selectively block entry. These techniques are used for surveillance and censorship in areas the place freedom of speech and expression are restricted.

Citizen Lab reported in 2023 that Iranian telecoms large Ariantel had consulted with Protei about know-how for logging web site visitors and blocking entry to sure web sites. Paperwork seen and revealed by Citizen Lab present that Protei touted its know-how’s skill to limit or block entry to web sites for particular individuals or whole swathes of the inhabitants.