Friday (iPhone) Open (iPhone) Thread > PI's convicted of computer hacking on behalf of rich clients

Two police officers who moonlighted as private detectives have been convicted of bugging phones and hacking into computers on behalf of wealthy clients.

Jeremy Young and Scott Gelsthorpe set up Active Investigation Services and ran a service dubbed "Hackers Are Us".

But they were dubbed "Hackers Are Us" in court for the "extras" they offered for a wealthy elite. They used illegal means to provide extra services for clients and had a price list for those services.

For £5,000, AIS would "monitor" - or hack into - an e-mail account.

For this, they used the expertise of Marc Caron, an IT specialist based in Phoenix, Arizona.

He used so-called Trojan horses, which infiltrate computers through a seemingly innocuous e-mail, website or programme, but then allow hackers access to everything on the machine.

Caron pleaded guilty in the US and will be sentenced on 28 June.

Among the computers targeted were official networks in government offices.

AIS was investigated by the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Corruption Command following a tip-off from BT.

Then in July 2004 they began three months of intensive surveillance into what they called AIS's "corporate espionage".

said by fAcEtIOUs:

Three cheers for the police for catching and locking up these low life criminals.