Data breach exposes US spyware maker behind Windows, Mac, Android and Chromebook malware
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe data shows that Spytech’s spyware — Realtime-Spy and SpyAgent, among others — has been used to compromise more than 10,000 devices since the earliest-dated leaked records from 2013, including Android devices, Chromebooks, Macs, and Windows PCs worldwide.
Spytech is a maker of remote access apps, often referred to as ‘stalkerware,’ which are sold under the guise of allowing parents to monitor their childrens’ activities, but are also marketed for spying on the devices of spouses and domestic partners. Spytech’s website openly advertises its products for spousal surveillance, promising to ‘keep tabs on your spouse’s suspicious behavior.’
While monitoring the activity of children or employees is not illegal, monitoring a device without the owner’s consent is unlawful, and spyware operators and spyware customers both have faced prosecution for selling and using spyware.
Stalkerware apps are typically planted by someone with physical access to a person’s device, often with knowledge of their passcode. By nature, these apps can stay hidden from view and are difficult to detect and remove. Once installed, the spyware sends keystrokes and screen taps, web browsing history, device activity usage, and, in the case of Android devices, granular location data to a dashboard controlled by whomever planted the app.
The device activity logs we have seen were not encrypted.
Our analysis of the mobile-only data shows Spytech has significant clusters of devices monitored across Europe and the United States, as well as localized devices across Africa, Asia and Australia, and the Middle East.
One of the records associated with Polencheck’s administrator account includes the precise geolocation of his house in Red Wing, MN.
A spokesperson for Minnesota’s attorney general did not respond to a request for comment.
Spytech dates back to at least 1998. The company operated largely under the radar until 2009, when an Ohio man was convicted of using Spytech’s spyware to infect the computer systems of a nearby children’s hospital, targeting the email account of his ex-partner who worked there.
Spytech is the second U.S.-based spyware maker in recent months to have experienced a data breach. In May, Michigan-based pcTattletale was hacked and its website defaced, and the company subsequently shut down and deleted his company’s banks of victim’s device data rather than notify affected individuals.
Data breach notification service Have I Been Pwned later obtained a copy of the breached data and listed 138,000 customers as having signed up for the service.
If you or someone you know needs help, the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) provides 24/7 free, confidential support to victims of domestic abuse and violence. If you are in an emergency situation, call 911. The Coalition Against Stalkerware has resources if you think your phone has been compromised by spyware.
Ref: techcrunch
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