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CEO of Spyware Maker Arrested For Enabling Stalkers
An anonymous reader writes: U.S. authorities have arrested and indicted the CEO of a mobile software company for selling spyware that enables "stalkers and domestic abusers." The U.S. Department of Justice accuses the man of promoting and selling software that can "monitor calls, texts, videos and other communications on mobile phones without detection." The agency pointed out this is the first criminal case based on mobile spyware, and promised to aggressively pursue makers of similar software in the future. Here's the legal filing (PDF). The FBI, with approval from a District Court, has disabled the website hosting the software.
"The indictment alleges that StealthGenie's capabilities included the following: it recorded all incoming/outgoing voice calls; it intercepted calls on the phone to be monitored while they take place; it allowed the purchaser to call the phone and activate it at any time to monitor all surrounding conversations within a 15-foot radius; and it allowed the purchaser to monitor the user's incoming and outgoing e-mail messages and SMS messages, incoming voicemail messages, address book, calendar, photographs, and videos. All of these functions were enabled without the knowledge of the user of the phone."
"The indictment alleges that StealthGenie's capabilities included the following: it recorded all incoming/outgoing voice calls; it intercepted calls on the phone to be monitored while they take place; it allowed the purchaser to call the phone and activate it at any time to monitor all surrounding conversations within a 15-foot radius; and it allowed the purchaser to monitor the user's incoming and outgoing e-mail messages and SMS messages, incoming voicemail messages, address book, calendar, photographs, and videos. All of these functions were enabled without the knowledge of the user of the phone."
There's an NSA joke in there somewhere...
Double standards... gotta love'em
It's not an arrest for enabling stalking. It's an arrest for enabling *unapproved* stalking.
...is there a link to this useful software?
I'd love to be able to do all those things on my phone.
I already record all of my calls.
Can't we find something better of DoJ to do. Start with bankers please.
I'm not sure about this legally. The software does not infect devices, nor does it get installed through deception. It is purchased and installed by someone who has access to the device. The person who installed the software without the owner's permission (assuming that person doesn't own the phone in the first place) would be responsible for any illegal actions. An analogy is trying to bring a lawsuit against a company that produces baby monitors, because someone put a baby monitor in someone else's home without permission or notification in order to stalk them. There are legitimate uses for the software, for example a parent wanting to monitor their minor child's use of the phone. Or I might would put it on my own phone in case my phone is stolen or lost.
Better known as 318230.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/allte...
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
You could argue that there are several legitmate uses for the software. IE Parents monitoring their children. Law Enforcement using the tools. Companies monitoring phones supplied to employees.
How is this software marketed? Is it strictly to stalkers? I kind of doubt it. It's just a technology that can be used for nefarious purposes.
You could just as easily argue that the government enables stalkers due their creation of roads and sidewalks that allow stalkers to follow their victims more easily. It is hard to see how they FBI can prove their case.
Clearly, these people do not have teenage daughters.
That'd be the American public you're asking about.
When congress decided to shove the PATRIOT act up everyone's colon, lubricated only by a healthy dose of TSA, all the American public did was enquire how far they should bend over. They're still bent over. The majority likes it that way. Because fear. Unreasonable, agit-prop and ignorance based fear.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
My first thought was "but... the children!?" ... I would think that the primary marketing for such software would be for parents. Not that I condone such actions, at the very least it would be socially acceptable.
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
Why don't you think of the children.
Seriously, this should have been marketed as a way to keep tabs on your precious little gem. There are already products out there that do similar functionality like nanny cams, locator watches and so on.
What kind of idiot would approve of someone stalking them?
Voters.
I bet the NSA has had this, and more than this, for many years, and will only see to it that this fellow is stomped into mush.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
If you don't trust your kids then you have a more serious issue. You can see if there's a problem just by looking at the phone bill. Kids will be kids but you have to lead by example so they don't get themselves into a situation that could compromise their privacy or security.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
If you think even for a *second* that this would not have happened during the prior administrations, or that the majority of damage to your freedoms had not already been done prior to Obama's terms, you really should see someone about that brain tumor, because it's made you into a flaming idiot.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
any by existing you mean "playing NSA at home for fun and profit".
some feminists can be asshats, but sweet shit. Even if you don't like them, at least admit they are right on this one.
Personally, I think this software should remain legal, just so everyone knows what a secret wiretap of your phone is capable of, and why its really really really bad, and an inviation for abuse.
it's important to note - for iphones, the app only works if the phone is jailbroken and if you have physical possession of the device and if you have the device/icloud password. also there's no jailbreak currently available for iOS 8, and considering that iOS 8 is on over half of iOS devices, you'll quite easily be SOL.
also worth noting that not only this tool but all of the NSA type tools we've learned about require the iOS to be jailbroken first. A good argument for not jailbreaking in my book.
Moral of this story if your going to sell apps intended for nefarious purposes you should advertise only "legitimate" and not illegal uses of said app and demonstrate a legitimate convincing use case.
In the real world it is hard to understand how this translates into good policy or in any way works to improve society.
You can arrest the low hanging fruit of loud mouths yet doing so will cause remaining sellers of functionally equivalent software now and in the future to change descriptions to avoid arrest and buyers to moderate keywords they use to locate desired software.
Nothing is actually changed and being arrested for technicalities does not "send a message" it is an exercise in futility and waste of taxpayer resources.
No one is saying that. We are saying that there is commericial software that is basicly an invitation for abuse, that for a couple bucks lets anyone play NSA, law enforcement at their most depraved and stalk, harrass and intimidate people by hi-jacking their devices. somehow its about feminism. are you fucking daft?
Next we should go after Apple and Microsoft. It's well established that 98.28% of all electronic stalkers, harassers, and domestic abusers used either Windows or osx to do it.
What the fuck is wrong with the world that the seller of a tool can be arrested because some customer chooses to use it for nefarious purposes. I sure hope people don't start using cars to commit crimes because I like having a car. Oh wait...
There is something offensive about saying these kinds of activities are perfectly fine for representatives of the State, yet illegal for the citizens of the State.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Intent matters in the law. There are things that can be legal or illegal depending on the intent behind it. This can apply to tools as well as actions. If you sell a tool for legitimate uses, you are generally fine even if the tool has some illegitimate uses too. So long as your actions, as in marketing and such, show that you intend it for legit uses, you are fine.
A good example would be all the fine burglary tools for sale at Home Depot. A large number of the tools they sell would work very well for breaking in to houses or cars. However it is very clear that isn't why they sell them, nor why 99.99% of their customers buy them. Not only do the tools have a substantial legitimate use, but that it what all their marketing is about. They don't try to convince you that you need a hammer drill because you could drill open most locks, they try to convince you that you need a hammer drill because you want to put up shelves in concrete or the like. They intend their tools to be used for legitimate activities.
The more shady the product, the more careful you'd better be about how you sell it because the easier it could show intent to have it used for criminal purposes. If it looks like you are just paying lip service to legit uses but really trying to sell your stuff for illegal uses, you are likely to get in trouble.
If you set foot in a country, they can arrest you for violating their laws. Doesn't matter if you aren't a citizen and live overseas. If you come there, they can arrest you. So let's say you regularly trash Islam and the Ayatollah and are well known for this. Then you travel to Iran. They very well can arrest you for that. They can't do much if you don't go there but if you show up, they can grab you.
Now in terms of if this particular arrest is legit for the American legal system, almost certainly. Doesn't matter that he was living in a foreign country. If he sold something that is illegal to Americans and using American services, he broke American law. Doesn't matter if he wasn't in America at the time, you don't have to be in a country to break their law. Let me give you a couple examples of how one can easily break a country's law from another country:
1) Ordering someone murdered. Let's say you have yourself a little gang with members in a few countries. You don't like someone over in Sweden so you order one of your Swedish members to murder them. That person broke Swedish law, but so did you. Doesn't matter you weren't there, you orchestrated a murder, that's illegal, and if they can get their hands on you you'll stand trial for it (the US would happily extradite you for that).
2) You set up a gun smuggling business for Canadians. You go and buy guns that are legal in the US, but illegal in Canada. You have them smuggled up and warehoused there, and then sell them to Canadians. You've broken Canadian law. Even if you are operating everything out of the US, what you are doing isn't legal in Canada and that's where it is being done. You house the guns in Canada and sell them to Canadians, that makes it a Canadian issue (you'd get extradited for that too).
So if this dude is selling his shit from AWS, to Americans, the courts will have no problems with the claim that American law applies.