A UK court has approved the extradition of a London
couple to Israel to face charges over IT-based industrial
espionage.
Michael and Ruth Haephrati are accused of developing and
supplying sophisticated Trojan horse software used by private
detectives to recover confidential data from the computer systems
of leading Israeli firms.
The businesses targeted suffered serious financial damage after
private detectives allegedly used the software to steal copies of
marketing plans, pay slips, advertising campaigns and business
plans to pass on to rivals. More than 45 Israeli companies and
individuals were targeted.
Israeli investigators believe Michael Haephrati may have sold
the software to investigative agencies in London.
"If he sold this Trojan horse to private detectives in Israel,
we assume he offered it to companies abroad also," police
spokeswoman Pearl Liat told Computer Weekly following Haephrati's
arrest in June.
Haephrati offered his services through a London-registered
computer consultancy, Target Eye, which lists its specialities as
security, intelligence and spyware.
According to Israeli court documents, the Trojan sent images and
documents from the target computers to servers in Israel, Germany
and the US.
Scores of businessmen and private detectives have been arrested
in Israel, following investigations by the computer crime unit of
the Tel Aviv fraud squad, Interpol, police in Germany and the US,
and the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit.
During the hearing in London, the judge ruled that there was
prima facie evidence that the couple had received payments from
Israeli private detective agencies.
Police have arrested two men in connection with the Zotob worm
outbreak, which disabled computer systems in hundreds of companies
across the world. Faid Essebar was arrested in Morocco and Atilla
Ekici was arrested in Turkey.