Company That Lets Parents Spy On Their Kids' Computer Usage... Has Database Hacked And Leaked

from the after-denying-it-all dept

There are lots of apps out there for parents spying on their kids computer/smartphone activities -- with the marketing pitch often being about how this will help "keep them safe" or some other such thing. mSpy is one of those companies, advertising right on the front page about how its snooping software can "keep children safe and employees efficient." It leaves out the bit about making both distrustful, but that's another debate for another day. Brian Krebs recently revealed that a "huge trove of data" had been leaked from mSpy and was being shared around the darkweb. And it exposed not just customer names but "countless emails, text messages, payment and location data" of those children and employees that the company was supposedly making "safe" and "efficient."

mSpy's response? Well, first it was to deny the breach entirely, saying that it was a bogus "predatory" attack:

“There is no data of 400,000 of our customers on the web,” a spokeswoman for the company told the BBC. “We believe to have become a victim of a predatory attack, aimed to take advantage of our estimated commercial achievements.”

And, of course, a day or two later, mSpy actually admitted the truth... which was that of course it had been hacked and had the data leaked.

"Much to our regret, we must inform you that data leakage has actually taken place," spokeswoman Amelie Ross told BBC News.

"However, the scope and format of the aforesaid information is way too exaggerated."

She said that 80,000 customers had been affected. Initial reports suggested up to 400,000 customer details had been exposed.

"Naturally, we have communicated with our customers whose data could have been stolen, and described them a situation. We put in place all the necessary remedial measures and continue to work on mechanism of data encryption," she added.

We'll see. If history is any guide, the hack may be even worse. In almost every story of a big hack into corporate computer systems, the initial estimate on the number of accounts impacted is too low, and adjusted upward at a later date.

Either way, it appears that in the process of trying to make children "safe" -- the company may have ended up doing the exact opposite.

Filed Under: brian krebs, children, employees, hacked, leaked, parents, revealed, safety, spyware
Companies: mspy

Jealous Lovers Now Get NSA Powers!

from the brave-new-world dept

I've been thinking, with all the revelations coming out about the NSA spying on all of us, maybe we've been going about reacting the wrong way. I mean, we all seem to fall somewhere on the spectrum of being upset about this, from the more mildly uncomfortable but resigning folks that are okay with the spying to those more militant about privacy. What if we're all just pissed that we aren't the ones getting to do all this sweet, sweet surveillance on everyone we know.

Well, that's all changed, thanks to the makers of the mSpy software, which allows you to gift smart phones preinstalled with their software to those you care about most and then play NSA on them to your heart's content.

Starting today, the company is also selling phones preloaded with the software, making it simple for users without any tech savvy to start surveillance right out of the box. The phone package is available with the HTC One, Nexus 5, Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s, at varying cost; for example, the Samsung Galaxy S4 costs $300; the subscription for the preloaded software costs another $199 for a year.

[From the moment the software is installed], the phone records everything that happens on the device and sends the details to a remote website. Every call is recorded, every keystroke logged, every email seen, every SMS chat or photograph monitored.

Count me as someone who is suddenly even more glad than ever that I'm out of the dating world. On the other hand, I suppose it'll be weird for any of us married folks to get smart phones as gifts from now on as well. Oh well, down the surveillance hatch, I say! The NSA spies on us, we spy on each other, and the important thing to remember is that the makers of this software, which advertises to buyers that their targets "won't find out", are the most innocent of innocents here.

The phone's proclaimed target markets are employers and parents who have the legal authority to watch what their children do on their smart phones. Company founder Andrei Shimanovich knows others may use his products in illegal ways, but says it is not his responsibility.

"It is the same question with the gun producer," says Shimanovich, a Belarus native who recently moved to New York. "If you go out and buy a gun and go shoot someone, no one will go after the gun producer. People who shoot someone will be responsible for this. Same thing for mSpy. We just provide the services which can solve certain tasks regarding parents and teenagers."

And creepy bastards, estranged lovers, stalkers, or anyone else who might be able to surreptitiously sneak this software onto the phones of whomever they're targeting. While it's completely true that we ought not blame the tool-maker for the way the tool is used, that doesn't discount the level of creepy in this software. Gone, apparently, are the days when parents raised their children to be responsible and then loosed them on the world to make a few mistakes and grow up better because of it. Gone are the days when employers made it a point to hire staff that they trusted. The NSA has paved the way for a whole new level of Orwellian acceptance, where the only difference between government surveillance and that we do ourselves is that our personal spying might actually be effective, since it will be more targeted.

Prepare yourselves, people, for when the news media first gets hold of some stalker who commits a violent act and is found to have employed this software, because the backlash against it is going to be insane.

Filed Under: privacy, spying, surveillance, trust
Companies: mspy