Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.Days before Simon Gittany threw his partner Lisa Harnum to her death from the balcony of their 15th-floor Sydney apartment in 2011, he had been reading her text messages using spyware.
But in Australia today, spyware vendors can sell products designed for customers to surveil a target without their consent, despite alarm among domestic violence and security experts.While police say the use of spyware may be criminal, a series of private investigation businesses are promoting the software, sometimes to jealous spouses who “deserve” answers.
Paul Richard says he has tried to divest himself from online businesses advertising spyware, and Brett Sutcliffe , one of his business associates.“There’s no legitimate reason that that technology should exist,” she says. Customers must physically download the software onto the “target” mobile phone or computer and installation takes between two and five minutes, according to the marketing material.
Researchers and domestic violence support advocates agree that many women who suspect their devices are infected are probably being monitored in less high-tech ways. It could be perpetrators using anti-theft GPS trackers, or via shared online accounts where the victim does not realise an ex-partner still has access.
WESNET chief executive Karen Bentley and Monash University professor Bridget Harris say spyware has a devastating impact on victims of domestic and family violence.“It’s really terrifying to think your every move is being monitored by technology.”After moving from Canada, he rose through the Australian healthcare industry to become chief executive of SunDoctors, a chain of skin cancer clinics, in 2017. Since 2021, he has run the NSW-based medical scan company PRP Diagnostic Imaging.
In 2017, Richard became a director and co-owner of a company whose PI brand advertised the technology online. He remained a director until last year and his family company continues to own a third of the business, after reducing its stake in 2020. PRP Diagnostic Imaging, Richard’s medical company, did not answer questions about his involvement in spyware.
“We have been advised that he has been seeking to divest his holdings since 2019 and we have requested he complete this as soon as possible.”Brett Sutcliffe pleaded guilty in 2008 to impersonating an Australian Federal Police officer to menace a 77-year-old woman, who had criticised him for parking in a disabled spot.
“Cryptico Consulting has sold a very limited number of subscriptions of spyware,” Rogers says in response to written questions. “If we locate a tracking device or spyware, a comprehensive safety plan is put in place,” Killen says. The programs perpetrators have installed may form the basis of police investigations into stalking or breaches of domestic violence orders.