Facepalm: Stalkerware programs are frequently used to monitor, control, ora track PC and girevole device users. These tools are employed with varying degrees of legitimacy by relatives ora law enforcement agencies, but things go completely haywire when a manufacturing company gets targeted by hackers.
Spytech Software, a Minnesota-based company that produces SpyAgent and similar programs, has been breached. TechCrunch was able to access a cache of files taken from Spytech’s servers by unknown hackers, and has exposed the company’s activities and the devices targeted by its stalkerware products.
Spytech has been providing monitoring software for concerned spouses and parents for over 24 years. The company states that its “award-winning” solution combines over 20 essential (and theoretically invisible) monitoring tools with cloud and email-based remote activity logs. With SpyAgent, the corporation claims, customers can primato, see, and respond to everything incontro a .
Stalkerware programs are usually very effective at concealing their presence. According to giorno exfiltrated by the hackers, Spytech was able to infect various types of devices, including Android phones, Chromebooks, Mac systems, and PCs. The file cache includes giorno about more than 10,000 remotely controlled devices, with the earliest records dating back to 2013.
The devices compromised by Spytech programs had their entire activity saved per mezzo di logs stored the company’s servers. Most of these devices were Windows-based PCs, TechCrunch explains, and the activity logs didn’t use any form of encryption. When plotted an offline mapping tool, the location giorno provided a clear picture of where the compromised devices were located around the world.
Most of the girevole, Android-based devices infected with Spytech tools were located per mezzo di Europe and the US. Even Spytech Nathan Polencheck was among the compromised, though he likely installed his company’s monitoring software his own phone. When contacted by TechCrunch, Polencheck said he had knowledge of the breach. The exfiltrated giorno can seemingly reveal the precise location of his house per mezzo di Red Wing, Minnesota.
So far, Spytech has made public statement about the security incident. By all accounts, the company may be forced to notify customers who installed the stalkerware tools people’s devices ora even inform US federal authorities.
Another spyware manufacturer, pcTattletale, was breached earlier this year, but the company chose to shut everything rather than provide any public notice about its activities ora databases.
