5 arrested for creating and distributing info-leaking cell phone software

TOKYO — Police said Wednesday that five men have been arrested for allegedly creating and distributing cell phone software designed to retrieve personal information from users’ phones.

According to police, Hirokatsu Okuno, 36, Yasumasa Tamai, 28, and three accomplices are alleged to have created a close copy of an existing, popular cell phone game application (“Piyomori the Movie”) in March of this year, Sankei Shimbun reported.

Around 90,000 people are believed to have installed the virus-infected software, which then sent over 11.8 million items of personal information from the address books of users’ cell phones to the software’s programmers. This information was then allegedly sold to dating websites and other spammers, Sankei reported.

Police are currently building a case against the five, who are likely to be charged with orchestrating a large-scale leak of personal data.

Japan Today