F-Secure, the Finnish Anti-Virus developer, have classified a commercial product, FlexiSPY, produced by the Thai company Vervata, as the first Trojan spy for Symbian Phones. Vervata has challenged this assessment:
“FlexiSPY is not a Trojan, nor a virus and does not require the purchase of F-Secure Mobile Anti-virus products to remove it. An uninstall option is provided for the user, so the application can be removed at any time. Configuration settings are also available to allow frequency of connections, thereby allowing the user to minimise network connections to once daily if required."
However, they fail to note that the “user” they refer to is the purchaser of the spy program (Vervata is quite clear that the product is intended for spying), who has a special code to access a hidden user interface.
The product records details of all voice call and SMS information, and then later sends those details to the FlexiSpy server, where the purchaser can access them. So, personal data would be collected without authorisation, and stored on a third-party’s system (probably in Thailand). F-Secure notes, “spying on people's private communication is illegal in most countries around the world”, including Hong Kong.