The head of a company that sells a spyware application for smartphones has been indicted and arrested for conspiracy and other charges related to surreptitious interception. It is the first time the US Department of Justice has targeted spyware apps.<\/p>\n
Undetectable and untraceable by most phone users \u2014 that is how a spyware application dubbed StealthGenie was allegedly being advertised by Hammad Akbar, the chief executive of the Pakistani-owned, UK-based company InvoCode.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old native of Lahore, Pakistan, is also one of the creators of the app, which can intercept communications to and from mobile phones, including Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices, the Justice Department said.<\/p>\n
Once installed on the phone, it allows conversations to be monitored as they take place, enables the purchaser to call the phone and activate it at any time to monitor all surrounding conversations within a 15-foot radius, and collects the user\u2019s incoming and outgoing email and SMS messages, incoming voicemail, address book, calendar, photographs, and videos. All of these functions are enabled without the knowledge of the user of the phone.<\/p>\n
\nUse #StealthGenie<\/a> and control their phone remotely by sending SMS commands from your own phone pic.twitter.com\/LQQWux2PmT<\/a><\/p>\n
— StealthGenie (@StealthGenie) April 3, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n