September 6, 2001

3:31 PM

Man installs spy softsare on divorced wife's computer What is odd about this is that a week or so ago, the FBI cited some odd "law" which allowed them not to have to reveal how spy software works (It did the same thing. Tracked key strokes.) And I thought that was a very secretive thing they had. Now every Joe can do this, I guess, if he applies himself in school.
posted by Postroad (6 comments total)

why use software, when you can use hardware!
posted by howa2396 at 3:50 PM on September 6, 2001

you know, it's kinda funny. got a tech support call from a woman the other day claiming that a psycho ex had installed hardware into her computer so he could keep tabs on her.

at first i was doubtful, now i'm not too sure... :/
posted by jcterminal at 3:54 PM on September 6, 2001

Any of the key logging programs the here will do much the same. they run invisibly on your machine, unless you have very limited resources.
posted by bison at 4:14 PM on September 6, 2001

every joe can and has done this for a long time. key loggers are quite simple to implement. particularly for windowed GUIs, since most of those are event systems. all the spy software need do is wait for the key-press event, look up the key, and log it. now, i suppose if you want to get tricky, you could backspace a lot. or hit arrow keys, or the insert key every now and then. but, even so, you can still piece together what people type and when, as well.
posted by moz at 4:15 PM on September 6, 2001

Don't laugh. I have an acquaintance who's getting divorced, and was asked by him specifically to a) install spy software, b) infect the PC with a virus, c) fabricate evidence (let's just not go there) so that he could gain full custody. I explained that whatever we would do would be extremely difficult, would have short-term effects, and could send both of us to jail.

I believe that events such as divorce heighten the interest level of the average joe in becoming a cutting-edge techie joe.
posted by dhartung at 5:17 PM on September 6, 2001

howa2396: from that article you linked... "I got into my hands, a VERY dungarees item."

I'm still trying to figure that one out.
posted by CrayDrygu at 5:59 PM on September 6, 2001