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Court Slams Door On Sale of Spyware
coondoggie writes "The Federal Trade Commission yesterday had a US District Court issue a temporary restraining order halting the sale of RemoteSpy keylogger spyware. According to the FTC's complaint, RemoteSpy spyware was sold to clients who would then secretly monitor unsuspecting consumers' computers. The defendants provided RemoteSpy clients with detailed instructions explaining how to disguise the spyware as an innocuous file, such as a photo, attached to an email."
How is that illegal to sell?
Back Orifice anyone?
Bane of ICQ 98b users everywhere!
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
As much as the FTC deserves an "A" for effort, however, the timeline of the case is an excellent example of how poorly equipped the government is when it comes to addressing this type of problem. The brief states that RemoteSpy has been available since "at least August 2005.
It hardly seems worth the effort if this time frame is typical. You'd hope any spyware scanner worth using would have picked it up 20x faster.
But it's stuff like this we're really after: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPack_(software). People who code professional-grade malware generally do so to profit off of it. It's well known that in the existing ecosystem of digital crime the malicious hackers themselves rarely act as attackers in large-scale id/credit card theft; instead they sell it to people who do. Quoting this extremely enlightening interview: http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11476
"The project is not so profitable compared to other activities on the Internet. It's just a business. While it makes income, we will work on it, and while we are interested in it, it will live. Of course, some of our customers make huge profits. So in some ways, MPack could be looked at as a brand-name establishment project."
This particular piece of spyware is amateur stuff, aimed at paranoid spouses/bosses, but if we can hit the business of selling spyware (probably requiring the cooperation of the international banking system, as well as the governments of china and russia) it would totally cripple large-scale internet crime as we know it. It's a pipe dream, of course. But one can always dream.
If the television show Cheaters is ok, then surely this should be ok.
"...if we can hit the business of selling spyware (probably requiring the cooperation of the international banking system, as well as the governments of china and russia) it would totally cripple large-scale internet crime as we know it. It's a pipe dream, of course. But one can always dream."
:), but the road to software hell is paved with legal definitions of the term "spyware".
I don't want to rob you of your dreams (or take away your pipe
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Almost all software has legal use to some extent.
I am a small company owner. I have 5 employees and provide them with computers. I have told them that their computer use is monitored and bought this software to ensure I could perform that task. It does.
My computers are for my company to make money, not their personal use. No personal email. No day-trading. No on-line banking and definitely no gaming. Do that stuff on your own computer and own time. I've had to discipline employees for personal use before and expect to do it again. My rules matter.
It would be nice to see antivistus software
become unneccesary by solving the root causes to security flaws in their system and their code instead of pushing thirdparty antisoftware out of the market by providing antivirus software for free.
Instead of trying to patch the security related symptoms like virusses etc, microsoft would be far more succesful to solve the root causes that lead to those symptoms. To that cause Microsoft should do something about their bugs, security architecture and other exploitable flaws.
Microsoft has proved throughout history not solving bugs or other security related issues, partly because of their interest to push new product versions into the market. So that said, it is not a very promissing story to the customer.
Independent third parties has more interest in solving security related symptoms, and they are more effective at it because it's their core business.
If Microsoft would be able to get a monopoly on antivirus software by providing this software or free, we all would lose.
Instead of having a laserlike focus on core business and being very good at it, Microsoft continuosly seeks to have a monopoly of mediocracy by having no core business.
Despite Microsofts succes pushing thirdparty software business out of the market, fortunately the open software community will only thrive even more with high quality solutions which make Microsofts mediocre products obsolete.
Is Sony next to get smacked down by the courts? And what other major corporations are in line for a similar smackdown?
Now say that 10 times in a row!
I am a software developer for some companies, and we have included as part of the test installation keylogger software, as well as mouse clicking software, because with out this log of information we found that humans have no clue as to the path that was used to create a problem in the software. So this a very very legitimate use of the keylogger software, and mouse clicking software when the tester, is running our program. Other times I have used keylogger, and mouse clicking software on a customer's computer just to diagnose an issue the customer was having, and found that some one on the cleaning crew was using the computers as a gaming network, the company was unaware of this activity until I installed this invisible software on their computers with their permission. When everything settled down, then I was paid to remove the keylogger, and mousing logging software.
Time for OSS to step up to the plate and make a GPL equivalent!
It's the use to which it's put.
Consider by analogy a crowbar. It could be used to force open someone's window or someone's head, both illegal; but it could also be used to pry off the hubcap of one's own car, an operation legal in most jurisdictions.
Let's see, legal ethical use of spyware... Hmm, that's a tough one for a civil libertarian. Logging your underage kid's IRC sessions in case you later need to find out where she's run off to meet her 40 year old "friend"?
Duh. Don't they know the best and only way to sell snooping software is to the government, via large contracts?
I consider myself a moderate libertarian. This is why it's only "moderate". I honestly do think this kind of software should be illegal; in fact I thought it WAS. In my opinion, no one has a legitimate reason to spy on someone else's computing habits, parents included. If you break down privacy you break down society, there's things you just don't want to know about other people, and said other people just as much do not want you to know about them.
And please, don't compare this to gun rights. Guns as self defense are a deterrent, but spy software doesn't work that way. You can't deter spying against you with spy software. People are still going to have spy software and use it, but it should be as difficult to use as possible, and victims should have legal defense against it if they discover the culprit.
By the way, I understand the fine line between VPN type software and spy software when it comes to functionality, so I understand the hurdles when it comes to illegalizing spy software. I'm just stating my opinion.
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
How easy is it to detect and/or delete keylogger software? Does anyone know if the popular anti-virus software out there will detect it?
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Personally I think anyone who wants to own a gun should be allowed to do so (with some sane limits: prior felonies, legally declared unstable, etc)
So for keyloggers, and similar spyware, everyone who wants this stuff should be subjected to a similar background check and documented as owning it.... and these records should be public.
A commercial software package that performs such tasks should be uniquely "fingerprinted" in a manner that is NON-TRIVIAL to defeat, and installation should require a physical key.
Further the resulting logs should be encrypted in a manner that only possesion of the physical key can decrypt.
Anyone who is found to produce such tools that don't conform should be prosecuted. In much the same way that manufacturing munitions without a government permit/license is prosecuted.
IMO such tools ARE munitions.
As for malware... anything that performs a spyware-like function that is unlicensed/uncontrolled by law.... is malware, and should also be considered a munition.
IMO, In a virtual world ANY application that *deliberately* disrupts the correct operation, or compromises the security, of a system, is a munition.
On second thought any such regulation should also apply to anti-malware applications too.
~HS
Does this mean that companies which develop keylogging software for law enforcement use are breaking the law? No? Didn't think so.
It shouldn't be illegal to write this kind of software, but it should be illegal to install it without either the owner's consent or a proper warrant.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."