FC: D.I.R.T. spyware exposed on web, by Kevin Poulsen

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

The now-offline website:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~usura/DiRT/

Earlier Politech message on DIRT:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02116.html

---

http://online.securityfocus.com/news/354
   
D.I.R.T. Spyware Exposed on Web

   Software marketed as a computer surveillance tool for law enforcement
   investigators has its secrets laid bare on an anonymous Web site.
   By Kevin Poulsen
   Mar 14 2002 1:30AM PT
   A closely-held software package designed to allow law enforcement
   agencies to secretly monitor a suspect's computer turned up on an
   anonymous Web site in the Netherlands Wednesday, along with user
   manuals, financial information, contracts and invoices apparently
   stolen from the company that makes the surveillance tool.
   Frank Jones, founder of New York-based Codex Data Systems, blamed
   unnamed critics in the security and hacking community for the exposure
   of his company's spyware product, called D.I.R.T. (Data Interception
   by Remote Transmission). But Jones downplayed the significance of the
   leak, dismissing the documents as outdated and obsolete, and
   emphasizing that the program won't run properly without the would-be
   user entering a valid serial number -- which is not including in the
   trove of purloined files.

   [...]



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------