Saturday, June 12, 2010

Mobile Phone Spyware Crackdown

Romanian authorities arrested 50 individuals for using a special mobile-phone program to spy on their spouses, business partners or the competition. The spyware was able to steal call logs, e-mails, SMS messages or GPS data from smartphones and allowed attackers to eavesdrop on active phone calls and private discussions held in the vicinity of the device...

Police also arrested Dan Nicolae Oproiu, 30, of Deva, Hunedoara, an IT specialist who sold the surveillance program through a variety of websites. ...the spyware application was available for Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone OS and BlackBerry OS and came in three versions - Light, Pro and ProXRecorder, which differed in features.

Most of Oproiu's clients who were arrested two days ago did not have a criminal background and many were members of the so-called upper class. The list includes several businessmen, doctors, engineers, as well as a government official, a former member of the Parliament, a police officer, a prosecutor and even a judge. There are also strong indications that the software was also unlawfully used by several detective agencies and private investigators. (more)