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A Hacker Has Wiped a Spyware Company's Servers -- Again (vice.com)
Last year, a vigilante hacker broke into the servers of a company that sells spyware to everyday consumers and wiped their servers, deleting photos captured from monitored devices. A year later, the hacker has done it again. Motherboard: Thursday, the hacker said he started wiping some cloud servers that belong to Retina-X Studios, a Florida-based company that sells spyware products targeted at parents and employers, but that are also used by people to spy on their partners without their consent. Retina-X was one of two companies that were breached last year in a series of hacks that exposed the fact that many otherwise ordinary people surreptitiously install spyware on their partners' and children's phones in order to spy on them. This software has been called "stalkerware" by some.
That a company like these should even exist is not really open to debate. It's one thing for warranted police to do this; it's quite another for the average man on the street to have this capability. As a 20-year systems administrator with loads of ability to see everything on the network, I never am tempted to do so. Unless and until HR asks me to engage in such an activity, I will never do it. People have a right to their privacy. Even here at work, I never go looking through user histories, etc. Let them do what they will short of breaking the law.
but we are not that lucky.
...so kudos to him
Does using software to monitor your ex-girlfriend's activity warrant a vigilante destroying the data you uploaded to a private company?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
I run a Raspberry Pi running Pi-hole for my kids. I don't whitelist them, I blacklist the things I don't want them to see or use. With age comes more availability. In addition to blocking ads, beacons, and tracking evil at the DNS level, the Pi-hole allows you to truly see what happens at the DNS level on your personal network. It's pretty eye opening to see what's phoning "home". I never knew my Netgear router needed to phone Disney due to the child protection element built in (now nixed). It's alarming to see how much chatter Windows machines engage in with the mothership (again, nixed). You may not can turn off all of the Windows telemetry, but you can nix the DNS calls to the telemetry servers easily.
Man, this took much longer than it used to...
Anyway, Obligatory Nelson Muntz.
#DeleteFacebook
yes, kids should have freedom to run around and not be stalked by their parents. same as we did in the 90s. fuck this company, hope the hacker did some real and permanent damage. it's called trust.
"cop scum"? You sure that's the term you want to use? If so, does your answer change if they're investigating a robbery that YOU were the victim in? And before you answer, understand there is a difference between "investigating" and "charging". Further, while the OP may or may not have intended to use the word, "robbery" involves the use of violence or threat of violence...which is different than "theft". If it was you who'd had a gun stuck into your face and relieved of your wallet, I'm confident you'd likely prefer the "cop scum" to investigate possible perpetrators. Choosing your words wisely is one of the hallmarks of maturity.
Social Media Handywoman at Texas Boys Balloo
yes, kids should have freedom to run around and not be stalked by their parents. same as we did in the 90s. fuck this company, hope the hacker did some real and permanent damage. it's called trust.
I grew up a few decades before you and was thinking the same thing. But one thing that you and kids today don't have to keep them in line is the fear that we had. Don't get me wrong, I did plenty of stupid shit when I was a kid. But we had corporal punishment at school back then. Which sucked and hurt a bit. But we also knew it was nothing compared to what we would get when we got home. It was the same if we got caught by the police or a neighbor turned us in to our parents. I think by the 90's it's unlikely that you had to worry about being ratted out by your neighbors. Either way, we had to think about whether or not what we were doing was worth the ass whooping we would get for getting caught. It was pretty clear to me that as a child I had absolutely no rights.
I'm not sure how I feel about this app being able to track kids. I seriously doubt it's legal to use this on an adult without their consent. It probably violates several wire tapping laws. However, they don't really exist for children. I can certainly see how some parents may want to use this. One things for sure, you're pretty much guaranteed that kids today will have their phone on them if nothing else.
Because there's something called RESPECT, that shouldn't require spying on your partner. If your partner doesn't respect you enough to give you your personal space, you shouldn't be with them.
The customers for this company sound like interesting subjects for psychological study. Don't trust their spouses and kids, do trust nameless, faceless strangers who make software to violate people's privacy. If that ever makes sense to me, I'd rather spend the money on therapy.
(As for the hacker, I wonder if "zer0 c00l" here believes that Angelina Jolie will be his girlfriend now?)