Spyware maker LetMeSpy shuts down after hacker deletes server data

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/05/letmespy-spyware-shuts-down-wiped-server/

by impish9208 • 3 years ago

77 19 3 years ago

mikece• 3 years ago

I would like to add to the beer funds of whoever did that.

yodon• 3 years ago

“The breach consisted of unauthorized access to the LetMeSpy website’s database, downloading and at the same time deleting data from the website by the author of the attack,” the notice reads.

"Good guys" don't usually download large amounts of potentially incriminating information about the people they are supposedly "saving".

capableweb• 3 years ago

Are you saying that people who shut down companies that creates spyware are not the good guys? I don't really care if it happens by legal means or by blackhat ops like this, but feels like it's hard to argue it's immoral to shut them down, even if you copy and share all their private data while doing so.

tetha• 3 years ago

Hm. There are several reasons for this I can come up assuming good intent. You could shuffle this data towards security researchers or the police to identify and notify affected people. It could also contain information which enables or simplifies secondary attacks against the service. Or it could contain data allowing to attack other related groups.

All of these are too big to decide and analyze in the moment the attack goes active and visible in the infrastructure. You'd just dump it and then wipe it and figure it out later.

It's certainly a sensitive dataset and it doesn't feel any kind of "good" for literally anyone to have it. But to me it's not slam-dunk just evil.

usdogu• 3 years ago

true_religion• 3 years ago

I feel like… they just shut themselves down and claimed it was hackers so they can continue to surveille high value targets without any official connection to them.

They may think that they can get more value from their spy network via darker means.

seanhunter• 3 years ago

Do you have any grounds for thinking that or is this just pure speculation?

fatfingerd• 3 years ago

Their database seems to have already gotten analysis that harms them more than a quieter shutdown.

tzs• 3 years ago

Poland-based spyware LetMeSpy is no longer operational and said it will shut down after a June data breach wiped out its servers, including its huge trove of data stolen from thousands of victims’ phones.

How had they not been fined out of existence for GDPR violations?

Poland is a member of the EU so GDPR applies to them even if the people whose data they were processing were not in the EU.

voytec• 3 years ago

GDPR is only as good as local interpretation. Polish government runs Google Analytics / Tag Manager on devices visiting gov.pl websites. Local GDPR body dismissed the case[1].

From my experience, GDPR in Poland is an absolute joke. Microsoft refused to allow me to access and delete my personal data which they have purchased. UODO's (Polish GDPR body) response was something in lines of "we don't deal with internet accounts".

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35029451

Spyware maker LetMeSpy shuts down after hacker deletes server data

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