Threat Post reports: Milan-based Hacking Team relies on servers in the United States and hosted by American companies to support its clients’ state-sponsored surveillance operations in some of the world’s most repressive regimes.

Hacking Team is an Italian security firm that develops surveillance equipment and sells it to foreign governments that allegedly turn around and use that equipment to spy on various targets. According to a new report from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, in at least 12 cases, U.S.-based data centers contain servers that have some nexus in the infrastructure of foreign espionage.

The specific tool sold by Hacking Team is known as Remote Control System (RCS). According to the report, RCS has the capacity to spy on Skype conversations, email communications, and instant messaging services in addition to siphoning off passwords and local computer files. [Continue reading…]