DarkMatter-The US Government Hacking Scandal

DarkMatter hacks include high profile travel information of USA former first lady Michelle Obama. The hack involving Obama occurred when the USA hackers hacked the private email of a Qatari minister.

How the C.I.A. Cracked the USA and Emirati-DarkMatter Controversy?

According to sources, CyberPoint originally obtained endorsement from the American government to work for the Emiratis. At this time, it was a necessary action meant to control the export of military and intelligence services. As many of the company’s employees had worked on high-class projects for the N.S.A. and other agencies, this seemed like a foolproof deal.

However, Emiratis had bigger ambitions than just preventing the export of the US military intelligence secrets. The UAE intelligence unit repeatedly pressured CyberPoint employees to overstep the limits of the company’s American license. Emirati intelligence operatives also made requests to crack encryption codes and hack websites on American-housed servers. These operations would’ve crossed paths with American Law had CyberPoint failed to cover up their demands.

To counter this, the Emiratis established DarkMatter in 2015. After forming a company not bound by U.S. law, they lured numerous American employees from CyberPoint. According to a roster of employees obtained by The New York Times, they employed several former N.S.A. and C.I.A. officers- some of them earning salaries of thousands of dollars annually.

Investigation into the American employees of DarkMatter has been ongoing for years. However, it was unclear whether there would be charges. There were also diplomatic concerns about risking the United States’ relationship with the Emirates as they have developed close connections to several American administrations. Others worried about the scandal of exposing the degree of cooperation between DarkMatter and American intelligence agencies.

This year, 2021, the C.I.A. warned their former officers en masse against working for foreign governments. The letter, written by the C.I.A.’s head of counterintelligence, stated there had been a significant trend of foreign governments attempting to hire former officials to develop their spying capacities.

According to Sheetal T. Patel, the C.I.A’s assistant director for counterintelligence, former C.I.A. officers who pursue this type of work is involved in activities that could undermine the C.I.A.’s mission- which would benefit not only the United States but foreign adversaries as well.

At this time, Prosecutors are saying that the Emirates steadily moved its contracts from CyberPoint to DarkMatter. Previous DarkMatter employees said that Emirati authorities focused against hacking the computer systems of Qatar, the country’s main rival. However, security breaches also targeted Emirati dissidents and journalists.