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Pakistani Man Indicted for Selling StealthGenie Spyware App
A Pakistani man has been indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia for allegedly conspiring to advertise and sell StealthGenie, a spyware application that could monitor calls, texts, videos and other communications on mobile phones without detection.
Selling spyware is not just reprehensible, it’s a crime, said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell. Apps like StealthGenie are expressly designed for use by stalkers and domestic abusers who want to know every detail of a victim’s personal life – all without the victim’s knowledge.
Hammad Akbar, 31, of Lahore, Pakistan, is the chief executive officer of InvoCode Pvt Ltd, the company that advertises and sells StealthGenie online. Akbar and his co-conspirators allegedly created the spyware, which could intercept communications to and from mobile phones, including Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, and Blackberry Limited’s Blackberry.
StealthGenie was undetectable by most users and was advertised as being untraceable. The indictment alleges that StealthGenie’s capabilities included recording all incoming/outgoing voice calls, intercepting calls on the phone to be monitored while they take place, and allowing the purchaser to call the phone and activate it at any time to monitor all surrounding conversations within a 15-foot radius.
Akbar was charged in the indictment with conspiracy, sale of a surreptitious interception device, advertisement of a known interception device and advertising a device as a surreptitious interception device. He was arrested in Los Angeles on Sept. 27, 2014, and is expected to appear before a magistrate judge in the Central District of California later today.
StealthGenie was hosted at a data center in Ashburn, Virginia. On Sept. 26, 2014, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia issued a temporary restraining order authorizing the FBI to temporarily disable the website hosting StealthGenie.
The FBI will investigate and bring to justice those who use illegal means to monitor and track individuals without their knowledge, said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Andrew McCabe. Akbar and his co-conspirators allegedly programmed StealthGenie to synchronize communications intercepted by the app with the customer’s account so that the customer could review intercepted communications almost immediately from any computer with access to the Internet.
RELATED: Babar Butt Indicted
Key Facts
- State: Virginia
- Category: Cybercrime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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