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| Private investigators used a Trojan horse created
by the couple to spy on businesses. |
Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have welcomed
the news that a married couple are to be jailed for developing and
selling a spyware Trojan horse that helped private investigators
spy on their clients' business competitors.
Ruth Brier-Haephrati, 28, and her 44-year-old husband Michael
Haephrati, have have entered a plea bargain to be sentenced to four
and two years in jail respectively after confessing to their
involvement in the Trojan horse case. The plea entered in a Tel
Aviv court also says that they will have to pay 1 million New
Israeli Shekels (US $212,000) each in compensation.
According to the court, the couple were managers of the firm
Target-Eya. Michael Haephrati developed the spyware Trojan horse,
while his wife, Ruth, marketed it to several private investigators
who bought the code and installed it onto the computers of its
clients' rivals.
"The Israeli authorities should be congratulated for bringing
these cyber criminals to justice - it sends a strong message that
these kind of activities will not be tolerated. However, it remains
to be seen if the private investigators who deployed the Trojan
horses on the computers of innocent businesses, and potentially
made more money than the Haephratis in the process, will also be
brought to court," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "We are seeing growing evidence
of Trojan horses and viruses being written for profit. Every
business needs multi-layered security in place to best defend
against this growing internet threat."
The Haephrati's trojan horse is said to have been used by
private investigators to spy on a PR agency (whose clients include
Israel's second biggest mobile phone operator, Partner
Communications), and a cable television station. Another alleged
victim was Champion Motors, who import Audi and Volkswagen motor
vehicles.
Tel Aviv District Court Judge Bracha Ofir-Tom will announce
whether she accepts the Haephrati's plea bargain on 27 March
2006.
Companies are recommended to protect their email with a consolidated solution to thwart the virus, spyware
and spam threats and secure their desktops and servers with
automatically updated anti-virus protection.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.