Spyware Living Up To Its Name
from the corporate-espionage dept
When most people talk about “spyware” they’re discussing applications that have the ability to “phone home” with additional personal data about who you are and what you’re doing. However, it sounds like some people are creating specific spyware designed to do very specific espionage. The article discusses a piece of spyware that appears to have been targeted at a specific company, looking around their network and then shooting corporate documents out, perhaps to use as blackmail later on. It appears some folks are taking “spyware” to the next level.
Comments on “Spyware Living Up To Its Name”
Just ask Valve Software...
Valve software had the exact same problem where someone obtained some of the Half-Life2 source code and content.
From what I understand, the exploit was through Micro$oft Outlook via the Preview Pane.
The moral of the story is don’t use Outlook, don’t open e-mail from people you don’t know (although the sender can easily be forged), and don’t keep copies of sensitive material on internal machines that have easy access to the Internet (even if you have a really good firewall to prevent external attacks, attacks from within can be a bitch).