A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has asked the U.S. government to ban several hack-for-hire firms, accusing them of targeting Americans and using foreign courts to silence U.S. reporting on their activities. The lawmakers, including Democratic senators Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse, and Republican congressman Pat Harrigan, have sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, urging him to add three Indian companies to the department’s economic sanctions 'entity list'. These companies, BellTroX, CyberRoot, and Sunkissed Organic Farms (formerly Appin), have been accused of conducting cyberattacks and targeted espionage against Americans, business owners, and their lawyers for more than a decade. The letter states that these mercenary hacking companies have stolen data from thousands of Americans and engaged in an 'aggressive censorship campaign' to suppress public awareness of their activities.

One of the companies, Appin, previously secured a global court order from an Indian court forcing Reuters to take down its reporting on the company while Reuters appealed the order. The notice that appeared on the page at the time said that Reuters 'stands by its reporting.' The order was later lifted and the report republished. The digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation previously defended two news organizations, Techdirt and the MuckRock Foundation, from legal threats after Appin engaged in 'a campaign of bullying and censorship seeking to wipe out stories' about the company's involvement in mercenary hacking.

The lawmakers' letter said that the hack-for-hire companies 'operated at the behest of the Qatari government' and that their targets included a former senior Republican lawmaker. Appin has been linked to Qatar before. Earlier reporting tied Appin to a campaign of cyberattacks against FIFA officials, reportedly directed by Qatar as part of an effort to protect its plans to host the 2022 World Cup. A representative from the Qatari government in Washington, D.C. did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment. An email from TechCrunch to Anuj Khare, a director at Sunkissed Organic Farms, went unreturned.

Separate reporting by The New Yorker and digital investigative unit The Citizen Lab has also documented espionage activity by the two other hack-for-hire firms named in the lawmakers' letter, BellTroX and CyberRoot. TechCrunch sought comment from representatives at CyberRoot, but did not hear back prior to publication. BellTroX could not be reached for comment.