nickel
09-30-2003, 09:11 AM
SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- A company calling itself Lover Spy has begun offering a way for jealous lovers -- and anyone else -- to spy on the computer activity of their mates by sending an electronic greeting, the equivalent of a thinking-of-you card, that doubles as a bugging device.
Computer security experts said the Lover Spy service and software appeared to violate U.S. law, but also said the surveillance program pointed to an increasingly common way for hackers to seize control of computers.
Marketed as a way to "catch a cheating lover," the Lover Spy company offers to send an e-mail greeting card to lure the victim to a Web site that will download onto the victim's computer a trojan program to be used for spying.
Recording keystrokes
The Lover Spy software, sold for $89 for up to five computers, purports to record anything the victim does on the computer, including all keystrokes, passwords, e-mail, chats and screen shots and even turn on the victim's Web camera.
The spy program discreetly sends the information to the Lover Spy server which then forwards it on to whoever paid for the software, maintaining their anonymity, according to the company Web site, which did not list contact information.
"Lover Spy is being used today by private investigators worldwide, spouses and parents who want to protect their children," the site claims.
"You don't need physical access to the computer," said Richard Smith, an independent privacy and security researcher in Boston. "It makes it so you can spy on anybody you want."
link (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/30/spyware.lover.reut/index.html)
would you ever use this?
Computer security experts said the Lover Spy service and software appeared to violate U.S. law, but also said the surveillance program pointed to an increasingly common way for hackers to seize control of computers.
Marketed as a way to "catch a cheating lover," the Lover Spy company offers to send an e-mail greeting card to lure the victim to a Web site that will download onto the victim's computer a trojan program to be used for spying.
Recording keystrokes
The Lover Spy software, sold for $89 for up to five computers, purports to record anything the victim does on the computer, including all keystrokes, passwords, e-mail, chats and screen shots and even turn on the victim's Web camera.
The spy program discreetly sends the information to the Lover Spy server which then forwards it on to whoever paid for the software, maintaining their anonymity, according to the company Web site, which did not list contact information.
"Lover Spy is being used today by private investigators worldwide, spouses and parents who want to protect their children," the site claims.
"You don't need physical access to the computer," said Richard Smith, an independent privacy and security researcher in Boston. "It makes it so you can spy on anybody you want."
link (http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/30/spyware.lover.reut/index.html)
would you ever use this?