Since 2011, Hinchy has owned and operated numerous companies, including the 16 investigated by the New York OAG, for selling and promoting spyware targeting Android and iOS devices, including Auto Forward, Easy Spy, DDI Utilities, Highster Mobile, PhoneSpector, Surepoint, and TurboSpy. Once installed on victim devices, the spyware would collect and exfiltrate data such as…

In recent years, burner phones have become an obligatory part of the international business traveler’s toolkit. But though these devices are designed to minimize the amount of stored data available for capture by malicious actors in a foreign country, burner phones actually give attackers an opening to another, potentially more valuable, form of data: conversations…

Why Enterprises Still Have to Worry about Eavesdropping

When one thinks about eavesdropping, a mental image of a shadowy stranger, hiding behind a corner and listening in on others’ conversations may come to mind. With the rise of VoIP calling, however, enterprises became aware of digital eavesdropping that impacted their corporate business calls. Now, though, much of the concern surrounding eavesdropping has been…

Researchers Demo Method For Turning A PC Into An Eavesdropping Device

Researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have devised a way to turn any computer into an eavesdropping device by surreptitiously getting connected headphones or earphones to function like microphones. In a paper titled “SPEAKE(a)R: Turn Speakers to Microphones for Fun and Profit,” the researchers this week described malware they have developed for reconfiguring…