- Three spouseware apps have disappeared, journalists have found
- All three were leaking sensitive data
- It’s not uncommon for spouseware apps to disappear and rebrand after a security mishap
Three spouseware apps – Cocospy, Spyic, and Spyzie, have gone dark. The apps, which are all basically clones of one another, are no longer working. Their websites are gone, and their cloud storage, hosted on Amazon, is deleted.
The news was broken by TechCrunch earlier this week, who said that the reason behind the disappearance is not blatantly obvious, but it could be linked to data breaches that happened earlier this year.
“Consumer-grade phone surveillance operations are known to shut down (or rebrand entirely) following a hack or data breach, typically in an effort to escape legal and reputational fallout,” the publication wrote.
The grey zone
“LetMeSpy, a spyware developed out of Poland, confirmed its “permanent shutdown” in August 2023 after a data breach wiped out the developer’s servers. U.S.-based spyware maker pcTattletale went out of business and shut down in May 2024 following a hack and website defacement.”
Spouseware, or spyware, is a type of application that operates in the grey zone. It is advertised as a legitimate software, used to keep track of minors, people with special needs, and similar. However, most of the time it is just a cover for illegal activities, such as spying on other members of the household, love interests, and similar.
Given its nature, the development team and key people are usually hidden, which makes it difficult for members of the media to get a comment or a statement.
In late February this year, two of the apps – Cocospy and Spyic – were found exposing sensitive user data: email addresses, text messages, call logs, photographs, and other sensitive information. Furthermore, researchers were able to exfiltrate 1.81 million of email addresses used to register with Cocospy, and roughly 880,000 addresses used for Spyic. Besides email addresses, the researcher managed to access most of the data harvested by the apps, including pictures, messages, and call logs.
Just a week later, similar news broke for Spyzie. The app was found leaking email addresses, text messages, call logs, photographs, and other sensitive data, belonging to millions of people who, without their knowledge or consent, have had these apps installed on their devices. The people who installed those apps, in most cases partners, parents, significant others, have also had their email addresses exposed in the same manner.
Via TechCrunch
