Hacked Data from Spy Software mSpy is Posted Online

Web Services

mSpy, marketed as a tool that lets people surveil the smartphones of their kids and lovers, apparently has been plundered. Earlier this month, gigabytes of data that is purported to come from the company’s servers was published on the “Deep Web.” The site hosting the cache is only reachable via Tor, a system that helps users traverse the Web anonymously by hiding their true Internet address, and also makes websites extremely hard to get shut down.

An mSpy public relations pitch from March 2015 stated that about 40 percent of the company’s users are parents interested in keeping tabs on their kids. “Assuming that is a true statement, it’s ironic that so many parents have now unwittingly exposed their kids to predators, bullies and other ne’er-do-wells thanks to this breach,” Krebs reports.

The data leaked includes:

  • Countless emails (such as corporate email threads, and very private conversations)
  • Text messages
  • Payment details
  • Location data
  • Four million events logged by the software
  • Apple IDs
  • Passwords
  • Tracking data
  • Photos
  • Calendar data
  • Support request emails