Spyware Installation on Wrong Computer Leads to Infection in Ohio Hospital

Scott Graham, a 38-year-old man of Avon Lake, Ohio (USA), would be admitting his guilt in court of allegedly installing spyware on a PC of a woman with whom he had an affair. This resulted in infection of Akron Children's Hospital computer systems.

Back in February 2008, Scott Graham bought 'SpyAgent' (a spyware application) for US$ 115 and dispatched it to his girlfriend, states the case-related plea agreement filed at the US District Court of the Northeastern District of Ohio.

Graham transmitted the spyware program to a Yahoo e-mail account of his girl-friend assuming that he'd be able to know everything the woman doing on her computer.

However, the woman opted for opening the spyware program on a PC situated in the department of pediatric cardiac operations at Akron Children's Hospital. So when the spyware was run, it dispatched over 1,000 screenshots to Graham's e-mail within ten days.

The exposed data that reached Graham therefore consisted of confidential data of 62 hospital patients. Owing to this offense, Graham would be compensating the hospital for the damages caused through a payment of $33,000 and could face incarceration sentence for a maximum of 5 years.

Describing the problem, Eric Howes, Director of Research Services at Sunbelt Software (an antivirus firm) noted that the incident at Akron Children's Hospital was not very different from what happened in 99% of organizations. Howes thus questioned the type of malware protection the hospice was using as a safeguard measure, as reported by FIERCECIO on September 18, 2009.

Programs like 'SpyAgent' are sold and purchased as legal products to assist worried parents or employers monitor their kids' or employees' activities while they using their PCs. However, according to Eric, such products could be misused for spying gullible users.

Moreover, specialists blamed the IT staff of Akron for permitting somebody to install spyware online. Apart from this, they questioned as to how a PC at a place, as sensitive as a hospice, could even be set for facilitating Internet browsing.

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» SPAMfighter News - 10/12/2009