Indian hackers in demand as ‘Hack-for-Hire’ companies compromise VIPs phones, emails globally: Report

“The British and the whole world … are using Indian hackers,” said an Indian hacker who claims that he has hacked more than 500 email accounts, mostly on behalf of his corporate intelligence clients. He says that he is a player in the flourishing cybercrime industry that steals secrets from people around the world.
An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Sunday Times has revealed that Indian hackers are being hired in Britain to target businesses, journalists and politicians. As per the report, these illegal “hack-for-hire” gangs infiltrate the emails and phones of VIPs around the world.
The report notes that most of the hackers involved in this business started with ethical hacking. The undercover reporters talked to one hacker who claimed that Computer “offensive work” – the term used for hacking – was much better paid than “defensive work” protecting systems.
He says that he has worked with clients in New Jersey, Belgium, Canada, and Hong Kong among others. The hacker notes “he charged between $3,000 to $20,000 for each email account he hacked and had established corporate intelligence clients in North America, Hong Kong, Romania, Belgium and Switzerland.”

Hacking in Qatar before FIFA World Cup 2022
It has also been reported that these Indian hackers were also hired to hack accounts of “critics of Qatar who threatened to expose wrongdoing by the Gulf state in the run-up to this month’s World Cup.” The hacking gang involved in Qatar hacking is said to operate under the name WhiteInt in Gurugram.
Apart from this, the investigation also reveals that BBC’s political editor Chris Mason was also a target. Other targets included the president of Switzerland and his deputy, a British-based oligarch fleeing Vladimir Putin, Michel Platini, the former head of European football, Formula One motor racing bosses Ruth Buscombe of Alfa Romeo team as well as Otmar Szafnauer chief executive of the Aston Martin team, and several computers owned by Pakistan’s politicians, generals and diplomats.