Security software discontinued in Syria following 'spying on opponents' by government

Damascus, July 11 (ANI): Widely used security software has been suspended after its inventor found the Syrian Government misusing it to spy on its opponents.

According to the BBC, the 'disgusting' way with which the DarkComet Remote Admin Tool (Rat) was being used in Syria had led to its production being stopped, the software's producer Jean-Pierre Lesueur said.

Experts welcomed the suspension of DarkComet, saying the Rat was being widely abused.

Syria was using the toll earlier this year as the government wanted to keep a tab on its opponents during the ongoing civil war.

Once DarkComet is installed on a target PC it allows remote access to that machine and can log any activity on it.

The Syrian Government attempted to use this function by trying to trick its opponents into opening a booby-trapped Skype chat message.

In a message posted to the DarkComet website, Lesueur said he was ending the project after four years of work because of the widespread 'misuse of the tool'.

He said it was never his intention for the tool to be misused by hackers and he did not want to be held responsible for what people, and governments, had done with DarkComet. (ANI)