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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."

5 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting. by gcnaddict · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So this was... legal malware? 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.

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    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 davydagger · · Score: 5, Interesting

      at this moment, there is no class of code that is illegal. Its completely legal to write malware, viruses, network security tools.

      Its only illegal if you use them against other people's computers. In fact most of the same tools used to break into computers are used to test security legimately, and many have even more diagnostic utilities.(wireshark, nmap, net cat, etc...)

    3. 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/

  2. Prosecute authors of remote administration tools? by tepples · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This in the article worries me: "Symantec said that any closures of [remote administration tool] projects were a positive thing, especially if the creators were compelled to do so by the threat of prosecution." So are GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, and SSH considered terrorist tools now?