Fergie's Tech Blog

Israeli Spy Software Code Had Design Flaw

Ted Bridis writes in an AP newswire article on Yahoo! News:

The spy software at the center of an Israeli economic espionage scandal quietly harvested stolen business documents and e-mails from victims' computers and secretly transmitted them to a computer in London, where police arrested a key suspect.

Here's how it worked: Some victims received e-mails that appeared to include a packet of confidential documents. But when the recipient clicked on the e-mail attachment, the spying software — a variant known among Internet researchers as "Hotword" — was installed.

Once active, the so-called Trojan horse software recorded every keystroke and collected business documents and e-mails on a victim's PC and transmitted information to a rented computer server registered by a Paris firm using a Seattle address but located in London.

posted by Fergie @ 6/02/2005 06:10:00 AM