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Author Kills DarkComet Spyware After Syria Uses It

Posted by Unknown on from the evil-doer-with-a-conscience dept.

judgecorp writes "DarkcoderSc (Jean-Pierre Lesueur) has ended the DarkComet Remote Access Tool (RAT) project, after it emerged that the Syrian government had used the software to spy on its opponents. The tool was also used to target Mac OS X systems last year."

2 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interesting. by Ciccio87 · · Score: 5, Informative

    So this was... legal malware?

    Hacking / security testing software is legal, it's its usage that could be illegal.

    Can someone clue me in on the history of this utility? As far as I can tell, this looks like proof-of-concept/research malware designed to be used for testing purposes, but that's the best I can gather.

    It was a RAT (Remote Administration Tool, strict relative of a trojan horse), it could, in effect, be used for good purposes (or for learning purposes, but, without sources, the chanches for this are lesser), however yes, it was mainly a PoC and an exercise in style.

    [OT] However, old news is old.

  2. Re:Interesting. by ae1294 · · Score: 4, Informative

    In Japan it's illegal to write or even save a virus to your computer. Apparently you get 3 years of jail time for writing and 2 years for acquire a virus.

    Citation: http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2011/jun/22/japan-enacts-anti-computer-virus-law/