John,
This is wild. Bloomberg and Reuters just exposed the mercenary hacking-for-hire group that targeted me and Fight for the Future at the height of our organizing to save net neutrality.1
The firm, Bell TroX, is based in India. But investigative journalists revealed that they were regularly hired by all kinds of shady institutions in the US and elsewhere to break into the email accounts of political activists, business competitors, and even senior elected officials.
We haven’t talked about this much publicly, but in the midst of organizing some of the largest online protests in human history to oppose the repeal of net neutrality, Fight for the Future was targeted by a barrage of sophisticated “phishing” attempts.2
The attackers tried to hack the email accounts of nearly everyone in the organization. They sent us convincing messages impersonating our partners and family members, fake document attachments, and highly personalized exchanges attempting to trick us into giving up our account credentials.
Luckily, as a non-profit that works on issues like surveillance and digital privacy, we already had good basic security procedures in place, and the hackers never succeeded. But it was a big headache, and caused a fair amount of stress at a key moment in the fight. Clearly, that was part of the idea. The New York Times reports that the same paid hackers targeted environmental activists who were running a campaign going after Exxon.3
We can’t know for sure who hired these hackers to attack us. But we know who benefited: the same giant corporations that spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying against net neutrality, internet freedom, and privacy.
To me, the Reuters report feels like a form of vindication. Fight for the Future is small but ferocious. Our ten person team of activists and technologists were enough of a thorn in the side of a big corporate bad guy that they paid an entire group of people to spend weeks trying to hack into our email.
That doesn’t make me feel scared. It makes me feel proud. Fighting for people’s basic rights in the digital age means that we are going to piss off some powerful people with deep pockets. When they come after us, it just means we know we’re being effective.
When I look at the news, it’s crystal clear that our work is more important now than ever before. From helping protesters protect themselves from surveillance to fighting dangerous legislation like the EARN IT act, we’re taking on political tyrants and corporate behemoths.
Fight for the Future’s groundbreaking work is only possible thanks to thousands of small donations from people who believe in our mission. But due to the financial hardships caused by COVID-19, many people are not currently able to donate.
So today I’m asking you: if you believe in a future with basic rights and freedom for all—if you want to keep us operating as a lean, mean machine that causes big problems for corporate and government wrongdoers—please become a monthly contributor to Fight for the Future today. Even $5 or $10 a month makes a huge difference. If you can do more, please do!
If you’re not able to commit to a monthly donation, please make a one time donation right now. That helps too!
If you’re not able to give at all, we completely understand. We’ll keep fighting for you, and we’ll keep sounding the alarm when there are moments where together we can change the world.
Defiantly,
Evan at Fight for the Future
Footnotes:
1. Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-india-cyber-mercenaries-exclusive/exclusive-obscure-indian-cyber-firm-spied-on-politicians-investors-worldwide-idUKKBN23G1FX
2. EFF: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/phish-future
3. New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/nyregion/exxon-mobil-hackers-greenpeace.html
Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.
