Restraining order on CyberSpy lifted

The Federal Trade Commission has come to an agreement with Florida-based CyberSpy Software that allows it to resume sales of its Remote Spy commercial spyware application. According to the U.S. District Court settlement, the company must not provide users with the means to disguise the software as an innocent file or email attachment. Users must also be advised that doing so may violate US state or federal law. Additionally, all recorded information sent over the internet must be encrypted and older legacy versions of the software must be removed from computers on which it was previously installed.

At the end of 2008. the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) raised a complaint against the vendor because the software violated regulations that stipulate that it's illegal for programs to install themselves onto a computer without the user's consent, or to secretly collect data.

RemoteSpy is a commercial spyware application that registers keyboard inputs, records instant messages, regularly takes screenshots, logs visited web pages and sends all the data it collects to a server. The users of RemoteSpy can log into the server and retrieve the data collected about the victim from there. RemoteSpy is said to employ rootkit techniques to hide from virus scanners.

See also:

• US court stops sale of commercial spyware, a report from The H.

(crve)