(Though the hack required access to a user's password, Kalalov claims the company is close to being able to retrieve the iCloud authentication token from a PC or Mac, so no password would be required). Katalov said multiple federal agencies and local law enforcement groups are taking advantage of his current iCloud hacking skills his company's latest hack has found a way to recover, decrypt and display passwords stored in a user's iCloud Keychain. In that case, though, he did provide a list of U.S.
Katalov didn't even know why his firm was approached. They noted that just this June the HSGAC asked DHS for details on all contracts for "electronic device search software." The source didn't respond to questions on why it was looking into that area of procurement or whether there was any suspicion about any Elcomsoft ties to Russia. A source close to the committee told Forbes that a staffer reached out as part of the committee's "oversight responsibilities" over the Department of Homeland Security's contracting. The committee wouldn't say why it approached Elcomsoft. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) contacted Elcomsoft to inquire about the company's products and U.S. Elcomsoft was then charged under the same statute, but all were found not guilty in 2002. He was later charged with crimes under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and kept in custody for three weeks before being released on $50,000 bail. In 2001, Elcomsoft researcher Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested as he wandered to breakfast at the Alexis Park hotel in Las Vegas, where the day before, at the Def Con hacker conference, he'd shown off techniques for breaking Adobe's copyright protection on eBooks.
The SFO stop wasn't the first time Katalov's company had faced interrogation on American soil. "If a shooting war goes off with Russia, I don't want this stuff on my computer," said Jake Williams, a former NSA and DoD analyst, now president of security testing firm RenditionSec. Overall anxiety about the potential for Kremlin influence over firms whose products are deeply embedded in critical U.S.
businesses against continued use of Kaspersky’s software over anxieties about the firm’s previously-reported connections to the Kremlin. They culminated in a bill that would ban the DoD and other federal agencies from buying software and services from Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, one of the biggest anti-virus vendors in the world. Fear of Russia's covert actions has extended to cybersecurity and what tools U.S.
Following the 2016 election hacks, Putin's increased aggression in Ukraine and Syria, and the ongoing probe into the Trump campaign's possible connections to the Kremlin, Congress tightened U.S. government’s surveillance apparatus and sit on some of the nation’s most sensitive networks at a time when suspicions over Russia are at fever pitch. Though they remain small businesses, the Russian hacker outfits are finding ways through the manifold layers of encryption set up by the likes of Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft.Īs a result, hacking tools from Elcomsoft, Oxygen and Passware have become a part of the U.S. with one of its most pressing national security problems: suspects "going dark" by using encryption to hide their online activities. They've been tasked with helping the U.S. At least two other Russian security outfits - Oxygen Forensics and Passware – are also doing contract work for U.S. Despite the incident, which suggested law enforcement suspicions about Elcomsoft, American cops and government agencies – from the FBI to the Department of Defense - continue to benefit from the company’s expertise.