Nine Indicted In Israeli Spyware Espionage Case

Indictments were filed by an Israeli prosecutor Thursday against nine men in the industrial espionage case that involved planting Trojan horses on rival companies' computers to spy out their secrets.

The indictments against the nine private investigators working in Israel accuse them of industrial espionage, fraudulent receipt, uploading computer viruses, hacking computers with criminal intent, wiretapping, use of wiretaps, invasion of privacy, and managing an unauthorized database.

In late May, 18 people were arrested, including a pair in Britain alleged to have created a custom piece of spyware. That pair, say authorities, was hired by the ring of nine private investigators just indicted. They in turn were employed by several companies and other individuals, who ordered up the espionage to gather confidential information about such things as upcoming bids and customers.

Although the man-and-woman team of programmers in the U.K. face extradition to Israel, and the investigators have been charged, the investigation into the third ring of companies is not completed, said law enforcement officials in Tel Aviv.

In associated news, one of the victimized companies -- a satellite broadcaster called HOT -- on Thursday was granted an injunction against rival YES, a firm that allegedly hired some of the indicted private investigators. The injunction bans YES from using any of the information obtained by the spyware snooping.