Motherboard has revealed the details of a contract between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and a government contractor, which had reportedly facilitated DEA's purchase of spyware since 2012.
On Wednesday, the news outlet reported that a $2.4 million contract was signed on August 20, 2012, solidifying a deal between DEA's Office of Investigative Technology and Cicom USA. Cicom, however, was a reseller for Hacking Team, an Italian surveillance software vendor known for its Remote Control System (RCS) solution, also called Galileo.
Last October, The Intercept published manuals that divulged how Hacking Team instructs its customers to use RCS to snoop on targets.
Motherboard and the U.K.'s Privacy International uncovered the records, noting that the contract expires in August 2015. The “Remote Controlled Host Based Interception System” mentioned in the contract is likely the infamous RCS tool, the outlet said.
