group of computer experts, known as hackers, have taken action against a company called WebDetetive based in Portugal. This company was involved in stealing people’s information. These hackers not only managed to steal the company’s data but also disrupted its activities.
WebDetetive had been secretly putting harmful software on people’s Android phones, especially in South America, mainly in Brazil. This software would steal private information from these phones, which is not a good thing. Although we’re not sure exactly what the company was doing with this stolen information, it seems they were selling it to make money.
The hackers, who wanted to stay anonymous, found weaknesses in the company’s computer systems. They used these weaknesses to break into the company’s computers and steal their data. They also stopped the company from continuing to connect to the phones they were targeting.
The hackers explained their actions by saying, “We did what we did because we could. Because we strongly dislike this kind of invasive software.”
A nonprofit group called DDoSecrets now has a collection of stolen data that’s about the size of a lot of photos. This data shows us the full picture of what WebDetetive was doing. When the hackers got into WebDetetive’s systems, they affected 76,794 phones. Among the stolen information, there were 74,336 unique email addresses of customers.
Deciding whether the hackers are good or bad isn’t easy right now. Some might see them as digital heroes because they stopped a company from invading people’s privacy.
But this might not be the end for WebDetetive. The company’s beginnings can be traced back to a similar spying app called OwnSpy from Spain. Although the people running WebDetetive are staying hidden, their connection to OwnSpy suggests that there are more people involved in these harmful activities.