Group of Bipartisan Lawmakers Ask US Government to Ban Several Hack-for-Hire Firms
Bipartisan US lawmakers urged Commerce Secretary Lutnick to sanction three Indian hack-for-hire firms, including BellTroX, over espionage targeting US citizens.
On September 9, 2026, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers sent a letter urging Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to add three Indian companies, including BellTroX InfoTech Services, to the economic sanctions list. The firms are accused of targeted espionage against US citizens, businesses, and their lawyers, as well as lawfare to censor investigative reporting by major American media. The request builds on Citizen Lab's 2020 discovery of the Dark Basin hack-for-hire operation, which targeted US nonprofits involved in #ExxonKnew and net neutrality advocacy and was linked to BellTroX and related entities.
- Bipartisan lawmakers asked the Commerce Department to sanction three Indian hack-for-hire firms on September 9
- BellTroX was linked to the Dark Basin operation Citizen Lab exposed in 2020
- Firms accused of espionage against US citizens, businesses, and their lawyers
- Lawmakers cite global lawfare aimed at censoring reporting by major American media outlets
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Date Published
September 10, 2026
In 2020, the Citizen Lab uncovered a massive hack-for-hire operation called Dark Basin. The group targeted American nonprofits, including organizations working on #ExxonKnew and organizations working on net neutrality advocacy. We linked the operation to an Indian company called BellTroX InfoTech Services, and related entities.
On September 9, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, urging him to add three Indian companies, including BellTroX, to the economic sanctions list.
The lawmakers have accused the firms of “conducting targeted espionage against U.S. citizens, businesses and the lawyers representing them,” as well as engaging in global lawfare to “censor investigative reporting by prominent American media organizations.”
Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://citizenlab.ca/group-of-bipartisan-lawmakers-ask-us-government-to-ban-several-hack-for-hire-firms/