12.15
– WebWatcher by Awareness Technologies – Reported Illegal Installation (May 2007)
– Reported to Montgomery Township Police (July 2007) No investigation.
– Reported to Montgomery County Detective Ray Kuter (July 2007) No investigation.
– Reported to Montgomery County Detective Richard Peffall (February 2008) Imaginary investigation via email – no meeting, interview, or voice/phone contact.
– Reported to Montgomery County Detective Joseph DeAngelo (March 2008) Investigation dropped at the direction of Judge Thomas Del Ricci and an attorney from the DA’s office.
– Reported to Federal Bureau of Investigation – Fort Washington (July 2007) No investigation.
– Reported to Federal Bureau of Investigation – Philadelphia (December 2007) No investigation.
Here’s the details they won’t investigate:
In February 2007, the constant transmission of data out from the computers indicated the presence of a virus, or spy ware program.
All client internet storefronts were suspended from business until the program causing the data transmission could be identified and removed.
The risk of exposing customer’s credit card and personal data was a huge liability, not only for my business, Work2BDone, but a failure to act on my part would expose my clients to liability and negative publicity.
Until the computers could be secured the storefronts would have to stay closed to avoid causing the identity theft/credit card theft of customers who were purchasing items to whomever was responsible for the illegally installed program
In February 2007, McAfee Technical Support was contacted in regard to stopping the program which was causing the data transmission. The resolution was intermittent and there were repeated contacts with McAfee Technical Support by phone and internet chat/email which continued through May 2007.
All Work2BDone client web site files and programs were stored, and accessible via the internet worldwide, on computer servers managed by Notrio Hosting.
The unstoppable program was transmitting such a high volume of data that it began to cause outages at the Notrio Hosting internet servers. The illegally installed program was now indirectly affecting 300 other Notrio Clients whose sites were hosted on the same computer server.
By Mid-May 2007, the frequent outages and inaccessibility of my clients’ web sites was requiring hourly effort to ensure the client sites were still available. During the outages, when the client sites were not accessible, my clients were also unable to access, read, or send email.
The daily server outages, and the constant problems with access to their web sites and email, forced my clients to get their web sites serviced by other developers.
At the end of May, a week after I discovered Sonya Healy had been planning for divorce since January 2007, it dawned on me that the unstoppable virus/spy ware program that was causing the problems was a surveillance program intentionally installed on my business computers and other computers in the home.
Awareness Technologies Technical Support monitors the data flow from the targeted machine(s). If anything should prevent the data theft, the purchaser is contacted with instructions on what needs to be done to re-enable the surveillance program.
The surveillance program records and reports all of the activity on the targeted computer(s) and provides exactly the actions which were taken to secure the targeted computer. Technical Support can review this information and provide the instructions or program to reverse the actions and thus re-enable the surveillance and un-secure the computer.
From February 2007 through May 2007, Sonya Healy, or the agency or person contracted by her, repeatedly reversed any efforts to secure the computer(s). Any efforts to secure the computers were undone within 24 hours.
Additionally, the WebWatcher software enables the targeted computer(s) to be redirected to another web site when attempting to access an internet address. You may believe you are accessing McAfee.com and chatting with McAfee Technical Support, but you will be redirected to another site which looks and acts like McAfee.com, but for some reason the technical support staff can never resolve any reported issue.
Attempts to search the web for information regarding the removal of the surveillance program are additionally prevented. The WebWatcher program can prevent a search engine (like Google) from finding a web site with the information. WebWatcher can block any web site from being displayed or even prevent the display of any web page that contains any word entered into a keyword list.
When you successfully interrupt the surveillance program, your computer has recorded your activities in securing the computer(s). Your computer will transmit the recorded actions effectively providing Awareness Technologies with the information needed to improve their program and prevent a subsequent detection, interruption, or removal.
Awareness Technologies was contacted in May 2007 and it was requested that they provide a method to remove the program from the computers upon which the program was installed. They denied it was their program.
After 8 weeks of investigation, review of available programs and discussions with other surveillance program companies, WebWatcher was confirmed installed, and identified as the program causing the transmission of all computer data out of the computers installed on computers.
The Anti-Spyware Coalition is a coalition which includes the software companies listed below and others. The coalition companies review computer software programs to determine if a program should be included in the malware/virus detection and removal routines. WebWatcher software has been improperly classified and is neither detected, nor removed, by the programs developed by the member companies.
AOL AVG Technologies CastleCops Computer Associates Dell, Inc. ESET F-Secure Corporation Google Hewlett Packard/Compaq
Lavasoft Mcfee Inc. Microsoft Panda Software Sunbelt Software Symantec (Norton) Tenebril Trend Micro Webroot Software Yahoo! Inc.
The Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware Software programs provided by these companies DO NOT indicate the names of program which they have elected not to detect/remove.
Advertised as undetectable, WebWatcher is detectable when you know the actions and capabilities of the program.
Falsely advertised as requiring hands-on access to a computer for installation, WebWatcher can be installed invisibly when emailed to a target computer. A laptop purchased at the end of July 2007 for the purpose of keeping the remaining Work2BDone clients web sites running was attacked via email. The email included a program which set the laptop to silently and invisibly install WebWatcher. The attacking files (WebWatcherInstall.exe and other related files) were secured and saved.
The attack on the new laptop was reported to Montgomery Township Police who refused to investigate.
The attack was reported to Montgomery County Detective Ray Kuter who did not return calls.
The attack was reported to the FBI who refused to get involved in what they deemed was a domestic incident.
In August 2007, Awareness Technologies was again contacted and refused the request to remove the program.
Awareness Technologies would potentially be facing liability for the damages caused by their program at the targeted computer(s);
– and the liability for damages to Work2BDone business;
– and liability for the affect of the downtime caused by the program to approximately 40 Work2BDone clients;
– and the liability for the loss of revenue for sales at the suspended Work2BDone client storefronts;
– and the liability for the damages and loss of business due to the server outages caused by the program to Notrio Hosting;
– and the liability for the damages and loss of business to the other Notrio Clients whose web sites were hosted on the affected server.
– Upon hearing how I had witnessed the silent installation on my laptop via email, and the method by which I was able to view and secure the hidden, and ever-hiding, WebWatcher program files, Awareness Technologies employee, Jaimie Kronek, confirmed the capabilities of a stealth installation of the surveillance program via email.
The next day, I was contacted by lawyers at Awareness Technologies to cease contacting the company or attempting to speak with any technical support employees.
Within the next week, the method by which I had been able to view and secure the WebWatcher program files would no longer work.
I was informed by email several months later that Jaimie Kronek was terminated following our conversation. The email further indicated that Ms Kronek was a recently hired employee unaware of the technology that she was discussing. The email was an attempt to misinform. Ms Kronek was a management level employee who was not a recent hire. A search of the internet revealed announcements and other Awareness Technologies information and documents which indicate she had been with the company more than ‘a few days’.
As of February 2008, the technology was proven which permits the computers BIOS chip to store the surveillance program or instructions to silently and invisibly download and install the surveillance program. Without a software solution to detect, remove, and prevent installation, there is no way to avoid a targeted illegal installation of the WebWatcher surveillance program (or other programs).
Attempts to elevate this issue on web forums have been immediately attacked on the forum to prevent any serious consideration of the issues raised.
Attempts to contact anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-malware companies via email or internet have produced no resolution. Even when informed of the destruction caused and the legal jeopardy facing the person responsible for installing the program illegally, there has been no reclassification of the WebWatcher program.
Of course, using their program, Awareness Technologies has full visibility to every web site visited, the content of every posting, and can always block entire sites by site, page or keyword.
Additionally, the program provides access to every password, every computer account, every bank account, every client account, every storefront account for each client, every email account within every client web site. They can control every function of the computer, and can block and prevent email delivery.
Because of the mounting liability, my fate may have been sealed on the day I reported the program was illegally installed on my computers. Instead of acting responsibly and removing their illegally installed program, Awareness Technologies joined the attack on the victim by phone and email.
Jaime Kronek recognized the disastrous situation caused as a result of the WebWatcher software program. In acting responsibly her employment was terminated. It is only logical that a company that terminates an employee for acting responsibly would seek to prevent exposure of their involvement.
Awareness Technologies has provided a tool which enabled the destruction of professional, financial, and personal aspects of the defendant’s life.
Awareness Technologies has provided a tool which enabled their customer to commit a broad range of criminal actions.
Awareness Technologies has provided a tool which enables their customer to continue to monitor the target, with capabilities to commit further illegal actions against the target to prevent exposure of the crimes and to attempt to avoid prosecution.
