Oospy spyware ceases operations

TechCrunch reports that mobile spyware Oospy, which emerged in July as a rebranded Spyhide phone monitoring app, has ended operations after its back-end server, which contained thousands of Android devices' data, was shut down due to terms of service violations by web host Hetzner. "In addition, we have terminated the customers server contract in due time," said Hetzner spokesperson Christian Fitz. While Spyhide had been compromised in a hack, threat actors were able to continue operations as Oospy using a back-end server that was not impacted by the breach. Sixty-thousand individuals around the world, thousands of whom are from the U.S., were estimated to have had their device data, including messages, contacts, call logs, photos, location history, and recordings, continuously exfiltrated until the takedown. Such spyware shutdown comes after the recent dismantling of Polish-based Android phone surveillance spyware LetMeSpy and the disappearance of the SpyTrac Android spyware app last year.